


All along the watchtower

by nishiki



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Ben deserves a medal, Caretaking, Developing Relationship, Diego is a Good Brother, Drug Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fake Character Death, Falling In Love, Ghosts, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Klaus needs a hug, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mental Institutions, Pseudo-Incest, Rating May Change, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Suicidal Thoughts, Warnings May Change, insane asylum, later developing Diego/Klaus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2019-11-15 04:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 105,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18066251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishiki/pseuds/nishiki
Summary: When Sir Reginald dies, his remaining four children return to the Umbrella Academy for the funeral. Three of the seven children are already dead, ripped from their siblings through horrible disasters. However, the funeral brings back not only long-repressed memories for Diego but new revelations for the rest of the Hargreeves siblings pertaining to the fate of one of their lost brothers.





	1. Prolog

**Author's Note:**

> Quick note: The story does not begin in late March like on the show but in late February instead. So Reginald died in February in this story, which gives the kids over a month to figure everything out instead! 
> 
> P.S. Just to avoid confusion from the start. Those speech marks: »...« are called Guillemets and are typically used in Europe in written material. Thoughts are marked in italics, quotations in "...".

It was loud. Too loud. Around him, the world was endless planes of snow. White walls, white floors, white ceiling. He was captive in an iglu and there was no way out.  No matter how loud he would scream or how much he would fight, there was no way out. It hadn't always been like this. He remembered a time when he had been free. No … No, not free. Not really. But a time when he had been able to get up and walk around. A time, when he had been able to see the limited part of the world his father had allowed him to see during his childhood.

He remembered the smell of the air during springtime, the sizzling of electricity in the air shortly before a storm. He remembered the fresh green of trees in April and the warmth of the sun shining down on him. He remembered clear blue skies and the moon with its white light shining into the courtyard of the academy. He remembered a portrait on a wall, showing a boy who would never age, never grow up.

He remembered a black marble statue in the courtyard of a boy with sad eyes who had been ripped from this world too surprisingly, too violently, his death leaving a permanent scar on his own life. He remembered the dusty smell of old books and the heavenly scent of fresh pancakes. He remembered the sound of a violin being strung in the middle of the day coming from one of the bedrooms, remembered the stutter of a boy trying to read a book out loud and forcing the words to come out with intent and confidence.

He remembered many things from his old life but it seemed so long ago that he wasn't quite sure anymore if those were his own memories. And sometimes, when it would get all too silent around him in these endless planes of snow, the screams of the dead would be all he was ever able to hear.

He had learned a long time ago not to scream anymore - or at least how to avoid it. He had learned a long time ago that there was no escape from the dead anymore - not since he was here. How long was a long time, though? It seemed impossible to say when he had last seen the world outside of this room. Was there even a world outside of this room? Where was this room to begin with?

Klaus Hargreeves very vaguely remembered his life outside of this facility he had been locked up in a lifetime ago. He vaguely remembered the voices of other people … his siblings. These days, all he heard was the screeching of the ghosts and all he saw were their gaunt grey faces with those sunken black eyes and their wretched claws.

Sometimes, he saw Ben.

Half of the time, he didn't know who _Ben_ was. He looked vaguely familiar, though, like he knew him from another life. He knew that Ben was one of the ghosts that were tormenting him but unlike the others, he wouldn't scream or try to scare him. Ben would sit down next to him in the snow and just be silent. Sometimes he would speak to him, tell him the weirdest little stories he had ever heard about a group of seven children who were raised by a tyrant because they had superpowers. Klaus liked those stories. They seemed familiar, in a way. He had always dreamt about being a superhero, of saving the day and being loved for it.

In here, he wasn't loved.

Except for the ghosts, the only people he would see were this nurse who brought him his food and made sure that he would eat and the doctor who looked too much like a comic book villain for him to feel comfortable around him. After all, it was the job of a hero to defeat the villain, right? Well, this man, Dr. Jones, had not taken too kindly to it as Klaus had tried to stab out his eye with his letter opener the last time they had seen each other.

He was, apparently, not a fan of heroes like Klaus.

Ben’s presence, however, was comforting. He felt like he knew that young man even though he didn't know from where or how. His whole life, it seemed, he had spent in this room, tied to a bed.

»You are stronger than this, Klaus.« Yes, that was what Ben usually said, right? »I know that you can hear me and that you can see me.«

He was a nice ghost. In fact, Ben was the nicest ghost that Klaus had ever seen. He didn't talk about the ghosts anymore when his doctor would ask him about them. Because if he talked about them, if he would say why he couldn't sleep and why he wouldn't eat, Dr. Jones would put a needle in his arm and tie him to the bed, or he would put him in this jacket with the straps and throw him into the room with the padded walls and no bed to sleep on. Dr. Jones would force him to sleep and when he would sleep the demons would come and get him.

»You need to breathe, Klaus.« Ben whispered right next to his ear. He looked worried as Klaus made the mistake of looking directly at him. He tried to avoid looking at anyone directly - never mind if they were dead or alive. He had learned that direct eye contact would often bring pain and he was tired of the pain. He was so goddamn tired of everything. Even breathing was a chore. »You need to breathe.«

»There once was a guy I knew.« Klaus heard a voice say but it took a moment for him to realize that it was his own voice. It sounded so alien to him, raspy and weak. »He … I don't remember his name. He had a stutter and he would always shout at the other people around.«

»Diego.« Ben urged. »His name is Diego, Klaus. Your brother Diego.«

»Yes … He was nice to me, I think.«

»He was.« Ben agreed with a soft smile pulling on his pale lips. »I remember Diego too, Klaus. And Luther and Allison and Vanya and Five. Do you remember them?«

»No.« The names sounded so familiar but he didn't have faces to connect to them. He didn't have memories to connect to those names. They were like echoes from a past life.

»Do you remember me?«

»No.«

Ben’s expression changed a little. He looked sad. He remembered Klaus of this black statue in some courtyard that he would sometimes see in his dreams. A small piece of heaven, a beautiful tree, and flowers, surrounded by the high walls of a prison without bars before its windows. He glanced up at his wall across from the spot on the floor he sat on, right above his bed.

He was allowed to paint and sketch. They called it art-therapy. They didn't like the things he would draw, though, and his paintings didn't bring any kind of comfort to Klaus either. His walls were littered with the horrifying faces of the demons that were haunting him in his sleep and he couldn't tell anymore if they were just pictures or really there. He was scared when he would look at them. And yet, he kept drawing them and hanging them at his walls as if he didn't have any other choice, as if his hands were directed by something else entirely.

»You have a visitor.« Not Ben’s voice. The voice of a woman. She sounded annoyed. »Klaus!« Her voice grew sharper and only that drew his attention towards the door. Nurse Parker. He remembered her. She would grab him so hard by his arm that it would leave marks. Klaus couldn't help but feel afraid of her, with her dark eyes and the thin line that was her mouth. »Don't look at me like that! Get up! You have a visitor.«

He didn't know what she meant and he only rose to his feet as she walked into the room and pulled him up with much more strength than a small lady like she had any right to possess. »You are going to catch a cold - sitting on the ground like this, wearing no shoes!«

»I don't like shoes.«

»And I don't like it to nurse you back to health because you caught a cold!« He didn't even know how to reply. He felt, a long time ago, he would have known what to say. But this man was another person. He was long dead. So, Klaus stumbled after her, out of the room and down a corridor. He avoided looking at the other people around, his gaze fixed on the ground and his own naked feet. Safe. His naked feet gave small slapping sounds on the marble floor. It was a safe sound.

He followed Nurse Parker down the hall and through a door that gave a weird noise as they were stepping through and then he was in another room. He had never been to this room. He had never had a visitor. No … No, that wasn’t true either. There once was a man with a sharp face like a hawk and a white beard and eyes as cold as ice. He could vaguely see an empty chair in the room, standing at a metal table and he could see a figure sitting at the other side of the table. Klaus didn't look at the person.

»Diego.« Ben muttered behind him. He had followed Klaus and Nurse Parker. Ben tended to follow him around anywhere Klaus went. He was almost like a guardian angel. Klaus felt safer when Ben was around. The demons wouldn't get him when he was around.

»Keep your hands visible. No touching in any way. No hugging. You have fifteen minutes.« Nurse Parker said and her grip was suddenly gone from Klaus. There was this sound again and then a door falling shut behind him.

»Klaus?« Another voice. A new one. Gruff and deep and filled with uncertainty. He could hear the squeaking of metal against marble. A chair that was pushed back as someone got up from it, perhaps. »Oh my God!« There were hands on his arms that he didn't recognize. Clearly, the other person with him in the room was not someone who listened very well to rules.

»Look at him.« Ben urged. »He won’t hurt you. Look how glad he is to see you!«

The man in front of him didn't look glad or happy or any of this as Klaus allowed his eyes to travel up from his chest to his face to take in the darker skin, the plump lips, the stubbles around his jaw, the scar at the right side of his head, the dark eyes. He looked as if he was staring at a ghost or at his own worst nightmare. His bottom lip was trembling and Klaus could see that he was fighting for composure because he knew what this felt like. Was this Diego? No … No, his face was all wrong. Diego was a kid. Just like him. Just like Ben. The man in front of him was too old. But his eyes ... He recognized them but he had barely time to really look at them as Klaus quickly looked back down at his feet instead. Safe.

»Klaus … What are they doing to you?« He didn't even know what to say. His jaw was wired shut. He felt helpless in the face of this stranger. »It's me, Diego … Don't you recognize me? I'm your brother.« But he wasn't. He knew this for certain. He wasn't his brother. He didn't have any siblings. He didn't have a family. He was but a child ripped from his mother's arms for some reason. He remembered that there had been a reason.

»I'm getting you out of here.«

 

**-End of Chapter 1-**


	2. Chapter 2

It was a grueling grey day as the Umbrella Academy opened its doors for the first time in twelve years for the Hargreeves’ children. As Diego roamed the halls of his former home, he felt odd, almost like an intruder even. It didn't feel quite right to be here again after so long a time. These ancient halls were filled with ghosts of long-forgotten mistakes.

They had strewn their father's ashes onto the ground in the courtyard an hour ago. Luther had probably imagined it to be a beautiful little moment and that the wind would pick up the ashes of their cremated father and carry them with it. Instead, his ashes had just fallen to the ground and nothing special had happened in any way. Not one of them had something nice to say about their dad either - except Luther who had been hit the hardest by the old man’s death. The rest of them were still too busy wrapping their heads around the fact that Five was back from the dead while Luther focused only on his new theory that their father had been killed.

He wondered what Klaus would have said if he would be here. He would have made jokes about all of this, probably. He would have made this whole situation easier to digest with his open smiles and his stupid little quips and remarks. He would have stolen everything that was of value and disappear out of sight again for the next few years. As Luther had told them all about his suspicion, Klaus would have made some crude joke about it.

Diego didn't mean to stop in the living room as he walked through his former home. He didn't mean to look up at the portrait of his brother hanging across the hall from the other one on a much less prominent place than the portrait of Five who looked down on Diego with this smug expression etched into his face for all eternity. Five didn't seem bothered by this portrait of his since he came back from the future. He had more important things on his mind, apparently. Like the end of the world kind of important.

»He would have hated this portrait.« Diego found himself muttering as he looked at the portrait of another one of his dead brothers. Already, they had way too many dead siblings in Diego’s opinion. They had been seven children once and until earlier today, they had already lost three of them. When they had first met at the house today, their group had suddenly been so small. Only him, Luther, Vanya and Allison had been left. And now Five was back from the dead and it didn't make anything better.

»Yeah.« Allison sighed. He had heard her walk over to him, of course. It was hard not to when her heels would be clicking on the polished hardwood floor of the living room. »Then again, he was always one for the limelight. But look at his hair and … No.« She shook her head. »He would have hated it. That's not Klaus up there … That's what Dad wanted him to be.«

She was right. Klaus’ portrait didn't even begin to cover what their brother was truly like and who he had been. On this portrait, Diego saw a teenager with well-groomed and combed back dark curls, a cocky smile, and sharp green eyes dressed in the uniform of the academy like Number Five across the room. But that wasn't Klaus.

Klaus had been a hurricane. He had been a force of nature. His laugh loud and contagious, his personality bubbly. Of course, the drugs had only amplified that about him and Diego knew now what he had not seen then - or rather, what he had refused to see. Much of what Klaus had decided to show his siblings, had been a show, a facade how he wanted to be seen by them. None of them had truly ever seen the horror lurking behind the surface. They had all ignored his troubles. They had all seen how bad he was. They had seen how he had rolled joints under the breakfast table, they had seen the pills and the empty bottles of alcohol. Yet, none of them had done anything. They had watched him suffer and waste away like a rose out in the searing heat of a desert.

»I miss him.« Allison sighed and as Diego looked at her, he could see the moisture on her cheeks.

»Do you now?« He replied sharply. It wasn't nice and if he wouldn't be him, he would have maybe kept his mouth shut. »Come on, Sister … You don't. You just feel guilty about his death but you don't mourn him. Not really.«

Allison glared at him like she always did when someone managed to get under her skin and call her out on her bullshit. Usually, this glare had always been reserved for Diego, who had never held back on her. »Oh, and you don't?«

»I never said I wouldn't feel guilty.«

»Yeah, and you better do!« She hissed. »We are all at fault for what happened to Klaus! We all saw how bad he was doing and none of us stepped forward to help him! You were too busy competing with Luther all the time, after all.«

»And you?« He growled as he turned fully around to face her. He couldn't stand looking at this portrait even for a second longer now. »As far as I remember you were too busy with your new career back then! I remember how often Klaus went to you just to hang out after Ben’s death and how often you sent him away because you didn't have time for him! So don't you dare start lecturing me now, Allison! At least I tried to be there for him! At least I never shut him out when he came to me!«

»Why is he dead then?«

The words stung like a slap to his face. And if it hadn't been for Five materializing right behind them, Diego might have attacked his sister in some way. She was right. That was the worst part about it. He could stand here all he wanted and claim how much he had been there for Klaus and yet Klaus was still dead. And he missed him. God … How he missed him.

»I didn't ask« Five chimed up to break through the tension between his other two siblings and as Diego looked at him, Five’s eyes were glued to Klaus’ portrait. »What happened? How did he die?«

Allison exchanged a small glare with Diego before she wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand sharply. »He sliced his wrists.« She then replied in a hoarse whisper before she turned on her heels and walked off. Diego could hear the strangled sob that escaped his sister as she left for the front hall. She would probably go looking for Luther next or Vanya, wherever Vanya was.

»I didn't expect that.« Five mumbled quietly. »I thought he had died on a mission like Ben.«

»None of us did.« Diego sighed and walked around one of the sofas to flop down tiredly. This whole day was one big pile of dogshit. He couldn't wait to get back home, be alone and brood in peace. »He just … After Ben’s death … They were so close.«

It seemed impossible to vocalize what was going through his head now. Diego, much like Luther, had never been a talker - not when the topic was so dire and serious and heartbreaking. The truth was, despite Allison’s gift and her way with words, Klaus had been the one who really kept them all together and who really had been the one to say the things the others needed to hear or couldn't vocalize themselves. Klaus had always been much more empathetic to his siblings’ feelings than the rest of them.

»I remember.« Five came around the sofa and flopped down next to him. God, it was so weird to have him back. Five had always been closer to Luther, Vanya and Ben, never to Diego and Klaus. Five, with his arrogant behavior, had always graded on Diego’s nerves. He had been such an insufferable know-it-all while growing up. Yet, he couldn't deny that he had missed the little punk and was glad that he was here again. If only Ben and Klaus could come back from the dead like this as well.

»Ben’s death came so suddenly.« Diego spoke up again and wrung his hands as he always did when he had troubles finding the right words. »It was … It was horrible. Really, really horrible. I remember the day still. We just turned seventeen, Christmas was right around the corner.«

He could still see the giant Christmas tree standing in the corner of this very room and the snow piling up on the sidewalks in front of the house. He could still see Klaus running through the house with a self-made little fishing rod to which he had attached a mistletoe. He had thrived on annoying his siblings in the most improper moments with this thing, demanding whoever fell victim to the mistletoe to kiss either Klaus or the other person that fell victim to the attack.

»On that day, Dad took only Luther and Ben on this mission. He said that it wasn’t a big deal, nothing too dangerous. And we … we sat all together here in the living room and played cards as Klaus suddenly started talking to Ben as if he would be standing right there« He pointed to the archway leading into the front hall. »And … And Ben wasn't there. And when we realized that Klaus wasn't just high or poking fun at us … Klaus almost fainted when he realized what had happened. He … He was completely out of it for days. I think seeing Ben’s ghost before he had even known Ben died deeply traumatized him.«

He could still see Klaus’ face when he would close his eyes frozen in the moment as he had realized what he had seen and why. He remembered holding Klaus later to calm him from his breakdown. He could still hear Klaus’ hysteric screaming at the realization had hit him that their brother, his best friend, was dead.

»And when Dad brought Ben home … Klaus was hysterical. I’ve never seen him like this before or after. Mom had to sedate him even to get him to calm down. Ben was torn to shreds as if this thing in his chest had escaped him and left a gaping hole in his body. It was awful. We tried to keep Klaus away from Ben that day so that he didn't need to see it. But I guess, it wouldn't have changed anything. He told me once that he would see Ben every night, hovering in his room, soiled in blood from head to toe with that gaping hole in his chest. Three months later … We were all out on a mission … Mom found Klaus dead in the bathtub. When we returned later that day and learned about what had happened, his body was already gone. Father had made sure that we wouldn't need to see his body - probably to avoid another breakdown.«

»There was no grave in the courtyard.« Five remarked quietly. It was impossible to tell how Five felt about all of this but his voice sounded tight and almost a little hoarse.

»No … Father had him cremated and put him in the mausoleum.« Diego remembered screaming at the old man. He remembered shouting at him and throwing things at walls. He had been livid as he had heard the news and was denied to see his brother one last time. The truth was, Diego had never been able to get over Klaus’ death. One moment he had been there, the next he wasn't. Just like this. No body, no grave. Just a black urn in a cold mausoleum that was always locked. He had never gotten the chance to say goodbye. At least Ben had gotten a proper funeral.

»He was … angry, I guess. He said … someone who would take his own life and throw away a gift like Klaus’ had with which he could have helped so many innocent people, wouldn't deserve to be buried where his loved once would one day be buried. He was … cruel. After you vanished, Dad became even colder and after Ben’s death, he became outright monstrous - especially to Klaus. He tormented him every day to make contact with Ben or with you.« Diego drove a hand through his hair. »And Klaus couldn't. If he wouldn't have been so hard on Klaus … Maybe he would still be here. Anyway, a few months after that, Allison left for California, then Vanya left and then I left too. Klaus’ death was the last nail in the coffin.«

He would have liked this pun.

»Yes … Klaus had always had this talent of keeping us all together, huh? No wonder this team would break apart completely after his death.« Five huffed. It was a surprise to hear those words from Five, who had always looked down on Klaus because, in Five’s eyes, Klaus’ powers were useless.

»I just couldn't stand Dad any longer after this. I thought that he had driven Klaus to kill himself. I understand now that we were all to blame.«

They fell back into companionable silence at that. Today was the day they should mourn their father and yet, Diego’s thoughts were with Klaus. They had been with Klaus the entire time ever since the day he died. Diego had not taken much from this house when he moved out. He had taken the crochet work his mother made for him once, a photo of his entire family together, including Pogo and Grace. Lastly, he had taken the last photo ever made of his brother Klaus. It was the same one his father had used for his obituary in the newspaper where the world had been told that Klaus died heroically during a mission.

Klaus had been gorgeous and brave and Diego missed him and wished he would have been there when Klaus had needed him the most. But Allison was right. He had been too busy competing with Luther for the spot of number one. He had been too desperate for father’s approval while knowing all the same that he would never get it. The same thing held true for Luther but at least Diego had understood that and left eventually. Luther had never realized that their father would never give him what he wanted.

»Guys!« Vanya’s voice was usually quiet and calm. He had never quite heard her shout or yell - not that he would remember it, at least. »Guys! Family meeting!«

It was his instinct to shout at her to go fuck herself and go write her next book. It was his instinct to lash out and ask her how dare she called a family meeting but when Vanya burst into the living room holding a bunch of papers in her arms, she seemed shocked - horrified even.

»What happened?« Five asked as Vanya paused in the middle of the room right between the two couches, looking positively upset, almost vibrating on the spot. Her lips were pinched into a thin line and her knuckles white as she held onto those papers as if her life depended on it. Not long after her entry, Allison and Luther appeared in the archway as well, just as confused as Diego and Five were.

»Vanya« Allison tried to gain their sister's attention. »What's wrong?«

But Vanya all but shoved the documents at their sister instead of saying anything before she quickly pulled out a small pill bottle from the pocket of her jeans to down two pills at once. »Dad lied to us!« She whispered but it was obvious that she wanted to shout. »He lied!«

»What do you mean?« Luther inquired while Allison was sifting through the documents, paling visibly with each one she turned.

»Oh my God…« She whispered. »Those are … letters. From the Ashcroft Sanatorium.« She suddenly stuttered. »It's … Klaus isn't dead.«  

»What?« Diego erupted as he jumped to his feet. He ripped the documents from her hands before Luther could and before he could even take in the logo of the Ashcroft Sanatorium on the header of the first letter Five had jumped over and ripped the documents from him.

»Dear Sir Hargreeves, we like to inform you about your son Klaus Hargreeves, patient number…« He started mumbling as he read out the letter, swallowing most of the text as he did. »No signs of improvement of his mental stability … recurrent fits of self-harm … attack on Dr. Oliver Jones with a letter opener … privileges have been revoked. Kind regards, Dr. M. Ashcroft.«

»What … What does that mean?« Luther asked as he slowly sat down on the sofa across from where Diego had been sitting until now.

»Those letters date back twelve years ago.« Five mumbled quietly and Diego felt his knees go weak. »Here … the first one is from … March 2007.«

»That means-«

»That means Klaus didn't kill himself.« Allison interrupted Luther. »That means … Dad sent him to this sanatorium and told us that he was dead. He did all of this when we were on this mission. He planned all of this!«

»No.« Five interrupted sharply. »I mean … Yes, he planned it and made sure that we wouldn't know what was truly happening here but … In the first letter after Klaus was admitted, it says that he recovered from ‘the critical overdose which prompted you to give your son into our care’.«

»So Klaus overdosed when we were on this mission and Dad had him sent away.« Diego felt sick even thinking this, let alone say it out loud. The worst part of all of this was that they had all believed their father when he said Klaus had killed himself. They had all believed him and never questioned this. How many nights had he spent mourning his dead brother? How many times had he stood in front of this portrait and stared at Klaus, yelling at him because Klaus had decided to leave him alone like this?

He had spent years resenting his brother for the decision to take his own life only to realize now that Klaus was still out there, that his brother had needed him to look for him and help him. Their father had played them all and the really sad part about this was that they all had been way too eager to believe him his stories as well. It had been easy to believe that lie. It had been easy to believe that Klaus had killed himself. They all had allowed this and Klaus had been out there, alive, suffering.

»Diego?« He didn't stop as Allison addressed him. »Diego, where are you going?«

He just left the room. He couldn't stand being in this room even for a second longer just now. He couldn't stand his siblings and their shocked expressions. Were they really that shocked? Maybe he was behaving a little unfairly towards them. This new information had hit him like a steam hammer against the stomach. He needed to sit down, he needed to run, he needed to punch something. That was the thing, wasn't it? If he would stay even a second longer, he would punch Luther.

»Diego!«

He could almost already hear Luther defending his father and he knew that he would fight his brother to the blood would he make that mistake in front of Diego now. Luther always defended the old man. Surely he would find some excuse as to why their father had lied to them like this. Luther always found excuses.

Diego didn't even know where he was heading and it was pure coincidence that he ran into Pogo as he walked up to his father’s office. He had been driven by some sort of instinct to this place. Back in the day, he had stayed as far away from this place as possible but now he was drawn to the office. Pogo was standing near the desk of his father, looking at the mess that Vanya presumably made earlier.

»Did you know?« Diego asked and Pogo didn't even seem startled as if he had either heard him coming or expected him to show up now. His throat felt like it had been lined with sandpaper.

»Diego…«

»Did you know?« He repeated, louder this time, his body vibrating with the anger he tried to swallow down. He wanted to lash out on Pogo, he wanted to scream and rage and get it all out.

»Yes.« The chimp sighed as he turned around completely to face Diego. »Yes, I knew about it.«

»Why?« He gasped, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. He grabbed onto one of his father's bookshelves to steady himself and wanted to rip it apart at the same time. »Why did he-« He couldn't even get out what he wanted to ask because he didn't even know what he wanted to ask.

»You have to understand, Diego, that your father only wanted the best for your brother.«

»By telling us he had killed himself? By locking him up in a mental asylum for twelve years?« The tears that threatened to spill were hot and burned his eyes.

Pogo let out another deep sigh. »Klaus almost died that day, Diego. You kids were on a mission all by yourself for the first time and only Klaus stayed behind. He was … _unstable_ since Ben’s death. And Sir Reginald was of the opinion that, if he wanted to save Klaus’ life, he needed to send him to the sanatorium to get him the professional help your brother needed to get clean and to get his emotions under control.«

»He didn't get better though! He stayed there for twelve years! How is that getting him the help he needed? He could have just told us what really happened! He told us Klaus killed himself! He put up a portrait of him as if he was dead! He let us mourn our dead brother! He- I-«

His voice didn't allow him to say even another word. It just broke off and refused to serve him for even another word. He had mourned Klaus. He had cried for days, whenever no one had been around to see it. He had felt numb to the world and brimming with emotion. He had felt dead and nothing at all, the shock of the loss of his brother weighing him down to the point where he hadn't been able to eat or function any longer. A part of him had wanted to follow Klaus into the unknown and the darkness his brother had always been so afraid of.

»He let us all suffer.« He finally bit out. »He let Klaus suffer. And why? Because he was disappointed in him? Because he was embarrassed of him? And you … How could you keep that from us, Pogo?«

»It was your father’s wish.«

»Mom … Did she know?«

»She was the one who saved Klaus when she discovered him that day.« Pogo sighed but before Diego could freak out even more, he continued. »But your father, after he had Klaus taken from this house, altered her memories so that she thinks now that she found Klaus dead in the bathtub and couldn't save him.«

»He put that on her?« His knees felt weak as he realized the massive amount of guilt his mother had been walking around with for the last twelve years. To think that she hadn't been quick enough to find Klaus to save him after she had been programmed to do just that whenever her children were in need was just messed up. It was demented. It was wrong. Robot or not, his mother had feelings and no one knew this better than Diego. She loved all of them, had raised them as her own, had cared for them and held them. No wonder she seemed so odd today. »That's just … disgusting, Pogo.« He hissed. »And you helped him keep up this secret, I can’t- I don't- I should go because I don't know what I would do if I stay.«

»I understand.« Pogo replied calmly as Diego left the room again. He wanted to tear it all apart, destroy everything in his father's office. Instead, he just left the office and strolled down the hallway. He stopped as he reached the picture gallery and found his mother sitting on one of her favorite couches, staring at the paintings on the wall like she would see them for the very first time, lost in her own world. Diego had found her sitting here often ever since Ben’s death and a part of him felt like crap for leaving her here all those years ago with just the old man, Pogo and Luther.

»Mom?« He mumbled quietly as he moved to sit next to her and only as he grabbed her hand did she look at him with that radiant smile she always wore on her face.

He remembered a time when Grace would sit on this very same spot with Klaus curled up beside her, looking at the paintings without even saying a word. Klaus had always been an artist and his room was witness to his talent to this day. None of them had touched Klaus’ bedroom ever since father told him about his death. To this day, the room remained as Klaus had last left it; with sharpie doodles all over the walls and the various paintings he had created strewn across the walls.

»Oh, Diego, Dear.« She smiled. »Are you hungry?«

»No, Mom.« He mumbled as she brushed the backs of her fingers over his cheek. »No … Mom … I want to talk to you about Klaus.«

Her look became sadder, if that was even possible. »I miss him.« She replied quietly but quickly put on another smile. »He was always so bubbly. Though I have to admit, your brother could drive me insane sometimes - he kept me buzzy!«

»You mean busy.«

»No, Silly, I meant _buzzy_. like a bee, always buzzing around.« She chuckled. »Whenever he came into a room, his smile would light up the whole room. The house seems colder since he is gone.«

»Mom … That's what I want to talk to you about. Dad lied to you - He lied to all of us.«

»What do you mean, Darling?«

»I- Dad sent him to a clinic, Mom. Klaus isn't dead.«

»What are you saying, Silly?« She smiled confusedly. »I know that it has been hard on you when Klaus died, you were always close to him, but Diego … Your brother is really gone.«

»No, Mom-«

They were interrupted by the heavy footfalls of Luther. He would recognize them anywhere. And no wonder … In terms of adult males, there were only the two of them left. Vanya was as silent as a mouse, Allison wore heels and Five would just teleport right between him and Mom if he wanted something. Diego bit back a groan at the realization that a confrontation between him and their fearless leader was now inevitable.

»Diego« He actually sounded a little more cautious than usual as he approached Diego and their mother in the gallery but Diego had no illusions about the fact that it was only for their mother's presence in this situation that Luther wasn’t raising his voice.

»I have nothing to say to you, Luther.« Diego responded as calmly as humanly possible. »And if you are going to try and defend Dad’s decision, I will rip your head right off your shoulders.«

Luther stopped a few feet away from them and the look on his face told Diego clearly that this was exactly what he had wanted to say and do. No, Diego thought, not this time. No matter what would happen between them, if Luther would even go as far as to try and find one single excuse for their father right now, Diego would not hesitate to throw one of his knives. As if Luther knew this, he sighed.

»I’m not going to.« It was a lie and they both knew this. Sooner or later, Luther would try and defend their father. »The others asked me to get you. We want to talk about this new situation.«

» _Situation_? What situation? You mean the situation our father put Klaus into twelve years ago?«

»Diego … Please, just come downstairs and talk to us, let's just … figure this out, okay? At least now we know that he’s still alive.« He sounded so genuine. Maybe this was the worst about this whole situation. Luther sounded so genuine as if he really believed that everything would be better now just because they had found out that Klaus wasn’t dead.

»There is nothing to discuss or figure out, Luther. We are gonna get him out of there and that's that.«

»It's not so easy.«

»You’ll see.« Diego groaned as he rose to his feet and stepped closer, his chin raised so that he could look his taller brother directly in the eyes as he confronted him. There was electricity sizzling in the air as if a storm was brewing on the horizon.

»None of you ever looked out for Klaus and now you try to act as if this is a family matter? As far as I am concerned, Number One, we are no family anymore. The old man is dead and so, what brought us together is gone at last. I, however, am going to visit our brother and then I will get him out of that asylum, whether you like it or not.«

 

**-End of Chapter 2-**


	3. Chapter 3

Being dead sucked. He had always suspected that much before his death but now that he was dead, he could verify his assumption. It sucked ass. He had been confused after it happened at first. The one moment everything had been alright as he had been whipping criminals through the air with his tentacles, the next moment his world had turned black and he had been all alone. It had taken him a long time, a lifetime perhaps, to grasp that he was dead.

He had gotten a good understanding of that fact, however, as he had borne witness to his own funeral. Watching his own funeral, his coffin being lowered into the ground, had been very odd, to say the least. He had watched from the darkest corner of the courtyard as his siblings and his father had gathered around the grave clad in all black with black umbrellas to shield them from the rain. It always seemed to rain when someone died or vanished as if the heavens mourned their dead just the same as they did. When Five hadn't returned home all those years ago, it had rained as well. Thick heavy drops crashing against his bedroom window. He remembered it vividly.

The worst about being dead was not the fact that he couldn't feel anything anymore or that he couldn't touch anything anymore, though. The worst about being dead was that he couldn't do anything to stop his brother Klaus from ruining his life. He couldn't stop him from taking drugs and as long as he took drugs and numbed his mind, Klaus wouldn't be able to see him. He watched helplessly as Klaus overdosed in that bathtub and his calls for help fell on deaf ears no matter how loud he screamed.

Worse was just seeing his brother inside the asylum, he assumed now that he found himself in that little white room again, watching his brother like some sick tv show. Klaus didn't even know that he was there half the time because of the medication they forced down his throat every day to keep him docile and quiet since the last incident.

No matter what Ben did or said to his beloved brother, Klaus remained indifferent and ignorant to it. Only rarely would Klaus acknowledge his presence at all and when he did, he didn't recognize Ben. It hurt to see his brother waste away like this. It hurt to see how Klaus forgot everything and everyone. Half the time his brother didn't know his own name. Half the time he didn't know what was happening to him. And Ben could only watch. he could only sit in the corner of Klaus’ room and watch how his brother would get bound to his bed after yet another fit of rage in which Klaus would slam his own head against the wall or the metal door. He could only watch how they would be forcing drugs down his throat and poke needles into his skin. Nothing about this was in the name of healing Klaus. His doctor had stopped trying to heal Klaus a long time ago.

He was their guinea pig.  

They would poke and prod at him and his brain until Klaus would eventually give out, fascinated by his powers while treating them as if they would be just hallucinations, as if they wouldn't believe in them. Sometimes Ben would leave and not return for days. Sometimes the horrors of the asylum were too much for him to bear. The first time he had left Klaus for a week, he had been certain that his brother would actually get better without him around. He had been of the idea that his presence was draining Klaus’ energy and only served to make his mind unstable. However, when he had at last returned, he had found his brother in a straightjacket with the marks of a noose still around his neck. It had neither been the first nor the last time Klaus had tried to kill himself. And every time, Ben had been privy to a first-row seat to watch his brother as he tried to throw away his life.

He had been there as Klaus grew from a teenager into a man. He had been there as Klaus’ once wild green eyes became dull and the life started to drain from them. It wasn't fair. His brilliant brother was rotting behind thick walls and there was nothing Ben could do about it. It wasn’t fair.

※※※※※※※

The asylum loomed large over him, like a volcano ready to spit fire and let ash rain down on him as Diego Hargreeves got out of his car. The building was just outside of town, far removed from the hustle and bustle of activity in the streets of the big city. The building, by the looks of it, might just be as old as the academy. Victorian, if Diego was correct in his assumption. He didn't care much for architectural styles, though. If Ben would be here, he would be able to tell him all about it. To Diego, though, the building was simply intimidating with its tall brick stone walls and the marble columns in the front.

The lobby was almost too clean and proper for Diego’s taste as he walked through the huge double doors. The flooring was black and white tiled marble like a chessboard, polished to the point where Diego was sure he would actually be able to see his reflection in them. The light was too bright and the reception desk stood prominently in the middle of the lobby, a set of winged double doors behind it that was made from frosted glass and iron as it seemed. There were only a few chairs and couches standing around next to a set of huge ceiling high windows with the obligatory fake plant to give the illusion of nature in this artificial smelling hell hole of a place.

The receptionist could have been nice, would she not hate her job and everyone she had to talk to as a means to gain her monthly paycheck. At least, he thought, she could try to not make it so obvious. She was a woman with bright red hair and dark-rimmed glasses probably in her late fifties and craving for the day she would retire from this certainly boring and mind-numbing job. The name tag on her blouse read ‘Gladis’ and Diego had nothing but sympathy for her in regards to her job. He couldn't even imagine working a proper nine-to-five job, forced to sit behind a desk like this and actually talk to people that came in and wanted to know stuff.

His work as a janitor for his boxing gym wasn't what he would have wanted from life and neither was his crappy little apartment in the boileroom of said boxing gym, but it was at least something and he had all the freedom he could possibly desire. That was more than he could have hoped for back at the academy. There had been a time when he had wanted nothing more than follow this path that dad had put them all on and become an actual hero at the police force. But then, in the police academy, he had pretty quickly realized that he was simply not the right fit for police work. Not to mention that he knew now that almost half of all the cops in this city were crooked.

His work as a vigilante was probably the closest thing he would ever get to being a hero. At least he helped people - without all the paperwork that usually came with it for the cops.

The lady behind the desk regarded him with a look as if she wanted to ask him if he was here to steal her purse but Diego could ignore it for the hammering of his heart inside his chest. This was the moment of truth, he supposed. If he would ask for Klaus and she would say that there was no Klaus Hargreeves in this facility, all his reborn hopes that Klaus was still alive and fine in here would get crushed under the weight of her words. No matter how awful of a move it had been from their father to put Klaus here, at least he was alive if he was here, right?

The truth was, Diego desperately wanted his brother alive. No matter the costs that being alive would have on Klaus’ psyche. Diego was selfish like this. He wanted him alive and breathing and not dead and burned to ashes and placed into this mausoleum he had hated so much all his life.

After a moment of calculation, the lady actually sifted through the giant book on her desk that probably held all the patients that had been admitted for at least two decades. It took her a while and with each page she turned, Diego’s heart sank lower and lower.

»Hargeeves.« She kept muttering. »Klaus. There we have him. I’m afraid Dr. Ashcroft has set very strict visitation rules for this particular patient. Only his father, Sir Reginald Hargeeves, is allowed to visit him.«

»He is dead.« Diego immediately replied. »He died … a few days ago. His funeral was today. I am Klaus’ brother. We only learned today that he is here and I … I really would like to see him, Miss.« He wasn't good at this. Charming up old ladies had always been Klaus’ expertise, not his! He only scared people away when he even tried to smile at them! People, in general, didn't like Diego! That was just a fact of life! He was like a balled fist with hair for most people he met. She didn't seem to be an exception to that rule.

»Sir, I’m afraid I can't make an exception without talking to Dr. Ashcroft first.«

»Then please do, I wait here, no matter how long it takes.« She looked at him with something akin to surprise but then nodded. Before she could pick up her phone, there was another nagging question on Diego's mind. »Did he? I mean … my father … did he visit Klaus?«

She hesitated and glanced back at the page in the book before her. »His last visit was ten years ago.«

Ten years. He wasn't even surprised as he slowly walked over to the seating arrangement and slumped down in one of the chairs. That didn't mean though that this information wouldn't be like a punch to the guts. He was well aware that Gladis, the lady at the desk, was looking over at him as she picked up her phone but Diego ignored her as he raked his fingers down his face instead. It was already late in the day and he was sure that this Dr. Ashcroft would use this as an excuse to have Diego leave for the day again.

If his father wouldn't be dead already, he would kill him.

He was actually glad now that Luther's plan to scatter his ashes in the wind had not succeeded. His father didn't deserve a beautiful funeral of any kind. He deserved to be exhumed and put on display as the monster he truly was - or to be completely forgotten by history and his children. Of course, his father had made sure this would never happen. Selfish bastard. He had known that his kids would find out sooner or later after his death what happened to Klaus.

It took a while until something finally happened. Endless minutes might have gone by until the doors behind the front desk opened with a buzzing sound to reveal a man in a fine three-piece suit. Dr. Ashcroft. Diego knew the type. He could see it clear as day that this was the man his father had made this awful deal with. He was a gentleman in his sixties, grey hair, thin-rimmed glasses and a sharp face that reminded him too much of his late father to have any kind of trust into this man. His eyes fell upon Diego right away as he walked over with an open smile and offered his hand to him. Diego almost stumbled to get back to his feet and greet him.

»Mr. Hargreeves, I assume.«

»Diego, yes.« He mumbled. _Don't mumble,_ he cursed himself. _You have to look respectable and talk clearly. You should have dressed more professional!_

»Gladis told me that you are here to visit your brother Klaus.«

»Yes.« Diego straightened his back. »My siblings and I only learned today that he is here. Our father didn't tell us. I want to see him.«

Dr. Ashcroft didn't seem keen on the idea but he seemed to consider it for a moment, mulling the thought over and over in his head, calculating his next move in this game of chess. »I heard about Sir Reginald’s death.« He then said calmly and his calm face did not change expression even once. Maybe he was one of his father’s robots, he mused. »You have my condolences for that. But I’m afraid that the death of your father does not change anything about the rules he had set in place for the treatment of his son.«

»Why?« He groaned through gritted teeth, too impatient to keep himself in check better. »He isn’t around any longer! Do you want to keep my brother for the rest of his life or what?«

»Only until he is getting better.« Dr. Ashcroft replied calmly. »I cannot allow you to visit him directly but I can allow you to see him at least.«

Diego wanted to argue, wanted to ask what kind of logic that was but he didn't. He had a chance now to see his brother again for the first time in twelve years and he wouldn't blow this chance just because his desire to fight and argue was maybe bigger. He nodded instead of starting a fight with this man. At least he would get to have a look at his brother, see if he was alright. That was not nearly enough for Diego, but it was what he would get for now and it still seemed like a miracle that Klaus was here, that he was alive. The truth was, Diego was still not completely convinced that all of this right here was real. It seemed too good to be true. Good things never happened to the Hargreeves children, after all.

»Right this way.« Dr. Ashcroft said with a polite smile and a little bow as he led Diego back to the reception desk and through the double doors into an endless maze of hallways. The first floor held the administration as it seemed, various offices and examination rooms sitting side by side. He could only assume that this was where the magic happened in terms of the admission of patients. Here, Dr. Ashcroft and his colleagues checked their new guinea pigs out and decided if they could even help them or not.

Diego followed the older man to a set of elevators, got inside and was catapulted to the third floor. The little sign next to the third-floor button read ‘restricted patients’. Well, if that wasn't foreboding. This part of the facility seemed almost as if it was still in its original condition. The walls were white and bland and the flooring held the same checkered pattern as the lobby. Getting out of the elevator there were three signposts hanging from the wall pointing to the left, the right, and forward down another long hallway.

To the right, the high-security cells were located. Diego could only assume the padded cells were included in that description. The sign pointing to the left said simply ‘Rooms A.300 to A.320’. The sign pointing forward read ‘Mess Halls, Showers, community room, Art Therapy’.

To his relief, they turned left. He didn't know if he would have been able to stand seeing Klaus in a padded cell, sitting in a straightjacket perhaps. As they walked down the hallway into the west wing of the building, there were almost no people around, a fact that severely weirded Diego out. He had expected to see at least one or two patients but that wasn’t the case at all. He could only see a few nurses chatting in the nurse's office that was the only waypoint on this hallway that was set apart from everything surrounding it with its large glass sliding window. One of the nurses glanced up in surprise from a magazine she was reading as she saw Dr. Ashcroft and Diego approach. He could see a list on a clipboard resting on the desk outside of the open window. He could only assume that it was the list for the cleaning personnel.

»Our hospital is one of the best in the U.S.A.« Dr. Ashcroft said to kill the awkward silence resting upon them. During the elevator ride, he had already talked a little about how he came to know Diego's father and that he had nothing but respect for the late Sir Hargreeves. He had even asked about the Umbrella Academy, inquiring which one of the superheroes Diego was. Diego had bit his tongue and answered the question. »We have a very high rate of recoveries and are very proud of the successes our facility had with some of the hardest cases we ever had in the past fifty years.«

»And still my brother has been here for twelve years without getting better.« Diego was unable to hold back at that and he noticed the affronted glance Ashcroft shot him.

»Your brother is a special case.« He almost snorted in response to that answer. Of course, his brother was a special case! His brother was a god-damn human Ouija board after all!

»Why is he here in the first place?«

»He was originally admitted as a result of a heroin overdose that nearly killed him. We have great success in drug recovery as well. However, your brother soon began to display very violent behavior - towards himself and others. Sir Reginald thus decided it would be best to keep him here and work on his issues. Sadly, your brother refused to work with us.«

»He has always been stubborn.« Diego replied and tried to make it sound much calmer and companionable as he meant it. He was itching all over and with every step they took in the general direction of his brother, he felt more and more uneasy, his knees growing weaker with every step he took.

»Sadly, I do not see him leave this facility anytime soon, Mr. Hargreeves.« The doctor then continued. »Klaus isn't talking to his doctor and we couldn't even have him leave his room in almost a year. The only place he is allowed to go to is the art-therapy room. Painting seems to calm him down.«

»We weren't raised to be very trusting of strangers.« Diego huffed. Only the mention of the art therapy managed to get a small smile on his face at last. »He always loved painting. It helps with the ghosts, he used to say.«

Dr. Ashcroft looked at him like he wanted to say something to the topic of ghosts but, in the end, he just pointed at a door to Diego’s right. »We are here.« Room A.310. Diego made a mental note of it right away. »You can have a look through the window but I’m afraid no more than this. Your brother is in a very fragile state of mind lately. He had a nervous breakdown earlier this morning and we had to restrain him because he was hurting himself again.«

 _Again_.

Diego didn't want to think about it too much. He couldn't. If he would imagine Klaus hurting himself in any way, he would go crazy. The truth was that, deep down, Diego had always been a softie. He had always hated it to see his siblings hurt in any way at all and he had been the one to patch them up again whenever Mom hadn’t been able to.

Diego felt nauseous as he was left with the action of looking into the room and swallowed back the bile that was burning in his throat as he finally turned to the door and looked through the small window that allowed a peek inside.

※※※※※※※

The thunderstorm that had threatened to hit the town for a few days now, finally arrived with renewed fury as it seemed. Diego had always liked the rain and thunderstorms. It was calming in a weird way. Perhaps this was only because he connected stormy nights with a warm body sneaking into his bed for comfort.

Klaus had always been afraid of a great many things and thunderstorms were only one of them. Diego had always been one of the only two people in this family who had seen behind the act their mischievous brother put on every day. He knew that thoughtful and artistic Klaus - the Klaus who stared into space for minutes on end, lost in his own world. As children, he had always found calm in Klaus’ presence when he had been sitting somewhere just staring blankly ahead, seemingly lost to the real world.

The serenity and comfort of this memory were gone now. Tarnished. Spoiled by something new, something wrong.

»What was it like?« Vanya’s voice was as quiet as always. Like a mouse. A quiet little mouse that scurried through the hallways. The night was especially dark on this day in February. Outside, the storm was howling and ripping on the tree in the courtyard that they could see from inside the living room. A fire was crackling comforting underneath Five’s portrait and rain was lashing against the tall windows. Diego’s eyes were glued to the portrait of Klaus, though. He wanted to rip it off the wall and throw it into the fireplace.

»Diego.« Allison’s voice was not sharp but loud enough to pull him from his thoughts as she addressed him next and her hand warm as she reached over to put her hand onto Diego’s left hand that held his glass of whiskey securely with a stone hard grip.

»It was…« Yes, what? »The place is nice.« He concluded. »Beautiful, clean. They have a giant park the patients are allowed to use.«

»What about Klaus?« Luther asked obviously impatient with his brother’s lackadaisical answer to the question. »Did you see him? Did you speak to him? Is he well?«

Diego shivered as the memory of what he had seen flashed through his mind and he quickly raised his glass to empty it in one swift move only to reach over to the bottle on the coffee table and refill his glass right away. He wasn’t usually much of a drinker.

»I wasn't allowed to really visit him. I was only allowed to have a look.« He replied and kept his eyes on his drink as he swiveled the amber liquid carefully around. He thought about his father as his eyes fell on his portrait next. What had the old man thought and felt when he had last seen Klaus? Had it hurt him in any way? Had his heart ached for his son perhaps? Well, for that to have happened the old bastard would have needed to have a heart at first, he assumed.

»Would you stop being so cryptic and be out with it already?« Five groaned and that woke the old fury in Diego at last as he met Five’s eyes now.

»You really want to know?« He growled. »No, our brother is not well. He was tied to his bed, not allowed to leave his room, not allowed to leave his bed, not allowed to take a piss when he wants or needs to and so pumped full with drugs to the point where I am not sure he even knows what's going on around him! So no, he is not well! And excuse me for needing a moment to collect myself!«

Allison’s hand was there again, grabbing his left once more and gently taking the glass from him. She was probably afraid he would throw it. »It's okay.« She assured him softly. »I can't imagine how hard it was to see him like this.« And her expression seemed honest as she looked at Diego now. He wanted to say something rude to her, something about her failed marriage, perhaps. Instead, he just jumped to his feet and started pacing through the living room.

»No … No, I guess you can't.« He mumbled. »H-He looked a mess. I mean … h-he was c-clean, yes - but … That wasn't Klaus. Hearing he was dead back then was bad enough but seeing him like this … It was as if … As if father had been right and he really was dead only with the difference that his body had not been burned but preserved and put on display for the last twelve years. He d-didn't even notice I was there … H-he … He was completely gone.« Hollow. Empty.

He could still see his empty stare when he would close his eyes. He could still see him lying on this bed in his white hospital pajamas with those cuffs around his ankles and wrists, tying him to the bed, making him unable to escape or fight back if something would happen to him. His eyes had been wide open as if he was privy to the worst horrors the universe had to show him but was unable to blink or even look away.

»A-And he was thin. I mean he was always thin but not … not like this. He looked like a skeleton. The director says he doesn't eat anymore. They have to force him. And he doesn't talk anymore either. Can you imagine that? Klaus not talking? The last time he didn't talk … His jaw had been wired shut after he fell down the stairs in Mom’s pumps and broke his jaw.« He drove a hand through his hair, a sorry attempt of calming himself. Nothing more than a nervous tick.

»What are we going to do now?« Luther finally asked after silence had settled over the remaining Hargreeves siblings for a few minutes.

Diego was getting almost more furious by this question as before when Five spoke. Mainly because it was just his gut-reaction to anything Luther said or did. »What do you mean what are we going to do now?« Diego growled. »We are going there and we are going to get out brother out!«

»But you said the Director said-«

»I don't care what this lunatic said!« Diego hissed as he turned his fury on Vanya next and saw her slump back into the sofa cushions as a reaction to his anger. »He is our brother and he should be with us! He shouldn't be there at this god-awful place! He will never get better there because they don't understand him! They don't get what he's suffering through! They pump him full of drugs and force him to stay awake and alert to the ghosts because they don't believe him! He isn't crazy! He’s getting crazy in there! Those people can't help him! We can! His family can!«

»But if they don't think he’s fit to leave-«

»How will he ever be fit if they numb him with drugs to the point where he can't do anything?« Diego huffed cutting off Vanya.

»So what do you propose?« Allison asked as she emptied Diego’s glass and crossed her legs in that way that told him very clearly how annoyed she truly was by all of this.

»I want to visit him again tomorrow and this time I threaten the shit out of them with dad’s lawyers! We could get guardianship over Klaus, I am sure we could get him out this way at least!«

The look he received from Luther was one of utter disbelief. »You can't be serious, Diego.«

»Why not?« He growled as he jumped up from his spot on the sofa and walked over to Luther who was leaning against one of the wooden columns at the side of the room. »He is our _brother_ , our responsibility! Why wouldn't we be his caretakers? If he … If he would be disabled and needed help - w-wouldn't you do that for him? No, let me guess! You would let him rot in some facility as dad did! Because he has no value to you like this!« Luther had always seen Klaus as useless and he had not shied away from showing it to their brother as well.

»That’s not … That’s not right and you know that! I would never-«

»Yes, you would because that was what Dad would have done! And you were never more than Dad’s little puppet doing absolutely everything the old man told you to do without questioning it first!«

He had expected the punch to come because fighting was their default mechanism. They had never gotten along. That was just a fact of their life and still, that didn't mean that they wouldn't love each other, per se. They did love each other in their own right, all of them. Whatever that meant and whatever that was worth, in the end. And still fighting came naturally to them. They were like two rams butting heads with each other, always on the collision course, never bowing down.

The resulting fight was like many others before and yet, this time it felt different, at least to Diego. He had the intention to actually hurt him. He needed a catalyst for his pent up anger and fury. His punches and kicks were meant to draw blood and he had the advantage of being quicker than his brother on his side.

»Enough of this!« Allison shouted finally as she tried to get between her brothers like she always did. Not that she would ever take anyone’s side but Luther’s, though. »This is stupid you guys! We have bigger problems than your stupid fights all the time! We have to think about this properly for once! We have to come up with a solution as a team!«

»We are no team.« Diego hissed as he slowly stepped away from Luther and wiped the blood from his split lips. Damn, that punch had nearly blown his head off cleanly! »We have never been a real team, Allison. Because if we were, we wouldn't have left Klaus behind. In a team, no one gets left behind. And I am done with this team and with this family when your guys’ solution to this problem is to let him rot there!«

»Diego, Dad had a reason to leave him there!«

Diego, however, left the living room and walked through the lobby without looking back again. He needed to go home. He needed to be as far away from those people he once called his family as possible. He needed to go home and punch a few things.

As he later lay in the darkness of his boiler room apartment, the shadows were suffocating him. Diego felt as if he had been awake and running around for weeks nonstop. He felt as is he had marched through a wasteland of dead bodies, through sandstorms and cities lying in ruins. As he closed his eyes against the darkness around him, he could see Klaus lying on this bed, staring into the void as if his soul had long vacated his body and left behind an empty shell.

No matter what his siblings said, he would get Klaus out of there - no matter the cost.

 

**-End of Chapter 3-**


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I wanted the escape from the asylum to be much later in the story but I thought it would just hinder the plot from developing if I do that

Diego had never been one to care what other people might think about him or what people told him to do or, more importantly, not to do. Even his own father - if one could call Sir Reginald his father, that was - had to acknowledge this very basic trait of Diego that was his very core as it sometimes seemed.

That was exactly why Diego found himself in the lobby of the Ashcroft Sanatorium for the clinically insane again the next day.

He had hardly slept the last night. No, that was a lie. He had not slept at all. The shadows of his tiny boiler-room apartment, his very own safe haven in this chaotic world, had been haunted by the face of his brother and by endless white hallways, a maze of the very same repeating plain white corridors over and over again, slowly driving him to the brink of insanity.

Gladis looked at him with mild annoyance as he walked up to the front desk with new-found intent. Today Dr. Ashcroft would not send him away without giving Diego the chance to actually meet his brother face to face. No matter what it would take, Diego had set his eyes on the price and he would not leave without having gotten what he wanted. That was just another one of his core traits. In a way, his mind worked like his knife-throws worked. When he decided on something he would get it no matter what.

He didn't care if Klaus wouldn't speak to him. It would be enough if Diego would get the chance to talk. It would be enough if he would be able to actually see and touch Klaus.

»Diego Hargreeves for Dr. Ashcroft, please.«

It didn't take long for Ashcroft to reach him after a very much annoyed Gladis placed the call without even trying to argue with the man in the black combat gear. The old man quickly beckoned Diego into his office shortly thereafter with an expression on his face as if he had already expected him to show up again. Well, if this man had known his father and knew a thing or two about the Umbrella Academy and Sir Hargreeves extraordinary children, he probably should have expected Diego to return. Needless to say, the office reminded him too much of his father’s office at the academy. All timber wood and heavy furniture, a pair of brown leather armchairs on the other side of the desk Ashcroft took his seat at, diplomas littering the walls like the heavy paintings of long-forgotten artists and a fire crackling softly in the marble fireplace on the side of the room.

»Mr. Hargreeves, so glad to see you again so soon. What can I do for you?« Ashcroft asked with that fake politeness Diego hated so much when it came to people like Ashcroft or his father. Then again, his father had never bothered to be polite - at least not with his children.

»I am here to speak to my brother.«

»Mr. Hargreeves, as I told you yesterday-«

»I can always come back with my father's lawyers and allow them to rip apart this facility and your reputation if you keep denying me the right to see my brother. Or we can do this without the pesky interference of lawyers and judges.« He would have threatened him with his knives but he didn't bring any. After all, bringing his knives had seemed like a bad idea - even to Diego the Kraken Hargreeves. »And, of course, there is always the possibility of informing the press about how you have been keeping my brother - who I thought to be dead - locked up for twelve years and how you are now refusing me, his brother, to actually visit him. The press always loves a good sob story, after all. And though my sister Allison is the actress of the family, I believe I could nail this performance well enough if it would be demanded of me.«

The room was small and unfriendly but all that did not matter to Diego. He would meet his brother. That was all that mattered as he sat down at a metal desk in the middle of the room like he had been told to so that Klaus would sit closer to the door and would be more easily detained if necessary.

To Diego, this was all absolute nonsense. Why would anyone need to detain his brother? Why would anyone ever feel the need to detain _Klaus Hargreeves_? Sure, Klaus was, just like them, a bit messed up and hadn't exactly shied away from using violence if necessary, but violent outbursts had never been his thing.

Klaus would never hurt him in any way - no matter what those people said about his violent tendencies. It just wasn't possible. Not Klaus, that little dude Diego had played with in their childhood. Not Klaus, that little dude who had always tried to defend every single one of them against all odds and despite physical disadvantages. Not Klaus, that little dude whose laugh had always lit up every room he stepped into.

The room didn't light up as the door opened and a nurse led his brother inside. If he wouldn't have seen Klaus the day before, he wouldn't have even recognized him.

Klaus looked even worse than he had yesterday lying on his bed through that small window that had made him appear so far away. His hair had grown out from the look their father had forced upon them, a messy mob of curls on top of his head resembling more a birds nest than actual hair. He looked haggard and thin, pale despite his natural a little bit darker undertones. Stubbles were casting grim shadows around his mouth and jaw, making him look much older than he was. Diego remembered Klaus bitching about how he wasn’t able to grow a beard like his brothers when they had been fifteen. He wasn't wearing any shoes and his naked feet were gently pitter-pattering on the marble floor as he was led inside, the sound almost inaudible so soft it was.

»Keep your hands visible.« The nurse chimed up. A small tag on her white apron read ‘Parker’. She reminded him of Nurse Ratched. They used to love watching ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’ as children although, in hindsight, that movie might have been the cause their general fears of medical personnel that was not their mom. Well, hindsight is 20/20, right? »No touching. No hugging. You have fifteen minutes.«

With that, she released the death grip she had on Klaus’ arm and turned around to leave the room. There was a camera mounted to the upper left-hand corner of the room, right above the door, directed at the table. It was Diego’s nature to notice things and watch his surroundings with a careful eye. The sound of the door falling shut was like the door to a crypt closing behind him and locking him inside with the dead. He felt dread settle in his stomach as he was now suddenly alone with a brother he hadn't seen for twelve years, a brother he had thought to be dead. A kind of dread that Diego had never known before. Not even on that god-awful day when Ben had died or when Five disappeared only to reappear yesterday as if nothing had happened.

Klaus looked tiny in his white uniform, almost as if the clothes were trying to swallow him completely. He fought the instinct of getting up and pulling Klaus in his arms. He didn't want to risk having his visit being cut even shorter because he couldn't follow those simple rules. »Klaus?« His own voice sounded uncertain even to his own ears. As Klaus didn't react to him at all, just kept standing there, his eyes trained at the table in the middle of the room, Diego got up at once and pushed his chair back in one swift motion, the squeaking of metal against the marble floor loud as a scream inside the small room.

»Oh my God!« He breathed out even before he had bridged the distance between them and could grab his brother by his arms.

Klaus had never been very muscular. He hadn't been weak either. His body had always been lean and athletic in a way that gymnasts or dancers were athletic. Nothing of this was left now. It seemed his muscles had withered away a long time ago. The man in front of him was only the shallow husk of the person he once knew and loved.  Suddenly, he didn't care if it was against the rules to touch Klaus. He needed to make sure that he was indeed here, that Diego could indeed touch him, that this man before him was not a ghost but a real person after all. None of this made any sense.

He felt his bottom lip tremble as Klaus finally decided to stop staring at the ground and actually look at him. It was slow and deliberate how his gaze traveled up from Diego's chest to his face before their eyes finally made contact. He had always been mesmerized by the green of Klaus’ eyes. For the longest time, until they had been allowed to see a semblance of the outside world, Klaus had served as his only indication that eyes could have a different color than brown or blue. They could be green like moss or green like the leaves on the tree in the courtyard in April. Now they were dull, the light in them snuffed out.

However, as Klaus looked at him, it was almost like a punch in the guts as Diego realized that his brother didn't know who he was. The realization didn't have time to creep up on him. The realization hit him like a steam hammer right in the guts. He didn't recognize Diego. To Klaus, he was a stranger as the other man quickly looked back down on his feet instead. Diego might as well be a custodian of the asylum. Diego might as well be another nurse. Diego might as well be the man who took care of the laundry.

»Klaus … What are they doing to you?« Klaus didn't look like he would answer him. Well, Ashcroft had warned him about that. »It's me, Diego … Don't you recognize me? I’m your brother.«

Still, no reaction from Klaus as the dread in Diego’s stomach manifested itself into disappointment. His brother didn't know who he was. The brother he had always felt the closest to while growing up, suddenly didn't know him anymore as if he had been deleted from his memory as if Diego had never existed as if they had not shared hundreds of nights together in Diego’s bed fighting off nightmares and demons side by side. Diego had experienced hurt and loss over the course of his life and yet nothing had hurt more than this realization now.

»I'm getting you out of here.« And no Luther and no Dr. Ashcroft would be stopping him from delivering on that promise.

※※※※※※※

The voices were especially loud this day. They were so loud that Klaus wanted to poke through his eardrums with a knitting needle. He wanted to scratch out his eyes and bang his head against the wall until he would have blissful darkness embracing him at last. Outside, thunder was exploding over the sanatorium and a woman with a smashed face was cowering in one corner of his room, whimpering and crying. He didn't need to see her. He could hear her. He knew she was there. She was always there when thunder roared outside.

As Klaus curled in on himself on his bed, the bed springs creaked loudly and he dug his blunt nails into his scalp. His head was swimming and he knew that, if he would make the mistake of opening his eyes to the darkness around him, he would be confronted with the pale grimaces of the dead that were zeroing in on his bed like a pack of hungry wolves would be zeroing in on a sleeping little lamb lying defenseless out in the open. He could almost feel them ripping on his arms and legs, trying to get him to look at them with all their might.

He was alone in this dark unforgiving plane of existence, the dead screeching in his ears and ripping, clawing at his skin until it hung from his body in bloody shreds. There were hands grabbing him, tearing his hands away from his face, flashing lights all around him. He tried to fight the demons that were trying to rip him apart piece by piece, forcing him on his back, forcing his legs and arms apart until he was bound again, gagged again, until he couldn't move a single muscle again, his back arching away from the bed he was lying upon before someone pressed down on his chest and forced him down again.

»Klaus, you need to breathe.« The voice was familiar, it was comforting in a way. He knew that voice. »Breathe. Slowly. You need to breathe.«

But the light was burning in his eyes and he couldn't see what was happening around him, felt only the cold metal of something being pressed into his temples and then electricity slicing through his body, ripping him cleanly in half. He had been struck by a lightning bolt. That was it. Pain - pure and simple pain - was shooting through him from his head into his toes and he was unable to do anything about it. In a way, the simplicity of the agony was something comforting for him these days. Everything else was so complicated.

The moment passed and Klaus slumped back on his bed. His entire body was vibrating and he could hear people talking around him. The ghosts were mocking him, the demons laughing at his expense before the electricity came back again. And again. And then … blissful silence and darkness and the face of a man in front of him with soft brown eyes like melted chocolate bars and a stutter, big warm hands on Klaus’ biceps, clutching him so hard as if the man’s life would depend on holding onto Klaus.

»I’m going to get you out of here.« A promise echoing over and over in his head.

※※※※※※※

The night hung low over the Ashcroft Sanatorium as Diego parked his car a little further down the road. Close enough that he would be able to reach it quickly and far enough away so that it wouldn't be detected by the cameras near the, now locked, front gates that were leading onto the premises. Rain was slamming against the roof of his car behind him. He was drenched within seconds. Not that he cared that much.

He remembered sitting in the bathtub with Klaus when they were little and how Klaus had made fun of his codename then. How often had he been sitting in this tub screaming ‘Release the Kraken’ on top of his lungs when Diego had been under water until Diego would shoot out again and splash him with water?

This was one of the very few memories, Diego held fondly in his heart to this day - Until their father had forbidden this childish behavior and decided they were too old to bathe together.

Rain had always had a calming effect on him and he had always felt reminded of these moments in the bathtub when rain would be drumming against the windows of the mansion. At one point, he had only played this little game with Klaus because it had brought his brother so much joy. He had loved seeing the joy in those sparkling green eyes. Those moments had been what brought him comfort in this hell hole and those moments had been the few ones when Klaus had not been afraid of the ghosts around him. But those moments had grown fewer and farther in between. And then they had stopped altogether and Klaus’ once innocent and bubbly laughter had changed into something Diego hadn't been able to recognize for the longest time.

Klaus had always been loud in his emotions and even his sadness had been deafening.

Getting onto the premises was almost too easy for someone as skilled and sneaky as Diego. He would have climbed the imposing iron fence with ease and only the knowledge that Klaus wouldn't be able to do the same thing forced Diego to actually use brute force on the fence to bend two bars apart so that he and Klaus would be able to squeeze through. He didn't need Luther’s brute force for that. An old Towel and an iron rod sufficed for that.

To his general surprise, there wasn't much security on the grounds. The only security guards were located at the iron gate which was closed at night and wouldn't allow anyone who wasn’t staff to drive into the driveway and the adjoining parking lot. Other than this, there was no kind of watchtower, no armed guards patrolling in this storm. So, Diego got to work as he evaded the security cameras that were keeping track on the premises close to the building itself. He had spent a little time researching the building before he went back tonight. By now he knew the easiest way in was through the laundry in the basement and so that was exactly where he was headed.

Getting in through the funnel and the always open window of the laundry, was easy but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get out that same way with Klaus. His brother wouldn't be able to climb up through the window and the funnel into the night. He had a plan for this as well although he didn't know if this would even be possible and if it wouldn't work the way he wanted it to work, he could always just pull Klaus out through the funnel.

The laundry was empty right now but Diego knew the ins and outs by now. He had spent the rest of his day to make himself familiar with the routine of a place like this. He quickly put on the work coat of one of the laundry workers that was hanging by the door and grabbed the nearest laundry cart. It was already still filled with dirty beddings that had been collected but not yet put into the washers. Diego had taken care of the person who would be working tonight. Thomas Sanchez had been glad to take his money and stay home for the night as Diego had asked him to call in sick and tell the staff that the agency would send a stand-in. Places like this right here always used agencies like the one poor old Thomas was working for. Diego knew these kinds of things. The job in the boxing gym was not his first job since he left home, after all.

The few nurses that were still around and walking the halls didn't pay Diego any mind as he was walking down the hall with the cart, humming a tune and giving the appearance of a man just doing his work as per usual. It was easy. Almost too easy to get up to the third floor where Klaus was being held. Diego had learned early on, after moving out of the mansion and taking on the odd job here and there, after the police academy, that usually people paid no mind to maids or handi-men or even janitors. Those people that were doing the hard work were only background filler to most other people. He took the freight elevator with his car as it was custom in these kinds of buildings and most hospitals for the cleaning personnel.

Form the moment he had left the car to the moment he reached the third-floor hallway, Diego had only taken twenty minutes. He walked over to the nurse’s office on Klaus’ hallway and signed the list that was lying on the desk for the cleaning personnel as M. Guerra, gave the nurse at the desk a friendly nod and continued on his merry way. He had made sure that Nurse Parker wouldn't be on shift tonight. The hat he was wearing as part of the uniform, made it easy to keep his face hidden from the cameras. It was his job to collect the laundry from the nearby laundry room of this hallway and for this, he would need to walk past Klaus’ room. As he reached room A.310 he looked inside to find Klaus lying on his bed on his side. His eyes were wide open but he didn't seem conscious at all, much the same as last time Diego had seen him in his room. At least this time he was not tied to his bed again.

He walked on, for now, to be out of the view of the camera that was directed down from where Diego came and stopped as he was behind the camera. One of his knives made quick work of the wires before anyone could notice anything. He continued down the hallway to the laundry room in full view of the next camera, went inside, collected the laundry, went back out and down the way he came. To the nightguards observing the camera feed, everything looked normal and though they would soon realize that one of the cameras had died, it would take time until they would have sent someone up to fix the problem - if they would do so in the middle of the night anyway.

He came back around to Klaus’ room and this time he walked over to the door again, his lockpick at the ready. Unlocking the door was way easier than it should be. Klaus didn't look up as he entered the dark room or as Diego stepped up to his bed to shake him by the shoulder. He didn't have much time for this. The nurses could get a bit curious about what took him so long if he wouldn't hurry up.

»Klaus … get up.« He urged but there was no response coming from his brother. His eyes were trained at the wall behind Diego. He was staring right through him. »Klaus, I need you to work with me here.« Still, no reaction.

Diego had it almost scarily easy to lift his brother up from his bed as Klaus refused to do anything to carry him over the few steps to the laundry cart. Klaus didn't move an inch. He was like a puppet in Diego’s grip. He was like play-doh - still alive and breathing, but his mind somewhere else completely. Whatever those bastards were giving him, they sure did a good job of keeping Klaus under.

He was drugged out of his mind completely and Diego couldn't even tell if he knew what was going on around him just now. He could be doing anything to Klaus and he wouldn't fight back and maybe wouldn't even know what was happening. The thought filled him with unease and pure disgust and terror. Seeing his brother so helpless made him sick to the stomach.

Diego made quick work of closing and locking the door after he had put Klaus into the cart and covered him with laundry. He felt almost bad that he was manhandling Klaus like this but there was no way he would be able to talk and do much explaining now in the very limited timeframe he had. The risk of getting caught was too high. »You need to be quiet now.« Diego whispered and, of course, didn't get any kind of reaction.

Well, no reaction was still better than having Klaus scream in fear, right?

Diego’s heart was beating a mile an hour as he was making his way back to the nurse’s desk to sign the list again and walk back to the elevator. Not even when he got in the elevator and had the doors close on him did Diego feel any more relieved than before. He wasn't safe yet. Klaus wasn't safe yet.

As he reached the basement, he left the elevator and glanced down the hallway in the most inconspicuous way possible. There was a metal door that led outside to a stone staircase that would lead to the grounds of the sanatorium. This was the typical way the personnel would enter or leave the building. Diego knew that there was a camera down there and could see now that there was another camera filming towards that door. So, if h would walk to the door he would be seen by two cameras at the same time, cutting their wires as he did before would be impossible without it possibly getting seen by one of the nightguards.

And since he couldn't leave this way with the cart, he wouldn't be able to smuggle Klaus out without the cameras seeing it. Instead, he kept on walking to the laundry room where he was meant to be going anyway. There was no camera in the laundry at least, that much he already knew.  So, the moment he had closed the door behind him, he got rid of his costume and pulled the dirty laundry from Klaus’ head to pull him out of the cart. Funnily enough, his brother blinked at him, seemingly more awake than before but still not quite there yet.

»Klaus, listen to me.« He urged and cupped Klaus’ face gently with both his calloused hands to force the smaller man to look at him. »I need you to help me now, okay? You need to work with me here.«

Klaus’ green eyes shifted to somewhere behind Diego as if he was looking at someone standing right behind Diego. It was his instinct that forced Diego to look over his shoulder in reaction to it. They were alone. Klaus, however, gave a small nod, barely noticeable and clearly not meant for Diego. He didn't have time for that now.

»Listen, I am going to help you climb through that window over there and then you will need to pull yourself up through the funnel. It's not high but you need to help me with that so I can help you, otherwise, we are both stuck, okay?«

There was another nod but he didn't think that Klaus had really understood him. Nevertheless, Diego pulled him out of the cart completely now and forced him to stand on shaky legs before he maneuvered Klaus over to the open window. Klaus was thin, at least. There was not much struggle to get him through that small window.

It took a little while to get Klaus to actually climb up as Diego gave him a bunk up. Klaus still wasn't wearing shoes but this would be a problem for later when he would be safe and warm. »Now pull yourself up!« He urged as Klaus was out of the window and in the funnel. He could see and hear him scrambling and was already halfway through the window himself to push at Klaus’ naked feet to help him. Astonishingly, Klaus managed to get out after that and Diego scrambled up after him.

»We need to hurry now, Klaus.« He told his brother and took him by the hand more out of reflex and to get him to move than anything else although he had half the mind to actually keep him close so that Klaus would not run off and into the view of a camera. »It won’t be long now until they will notice your disappearance.«

As he started running, Klaus had a hard time keeping up. of course, his muscles were wasted away over the past few years he had spent up there, locked into his small cell. Still, Klaus ran as fast as he possibly could and as Diego noticed how much he was struggling, Diego stopped to take him piggyback. The last time he had done that, they had been in their early teens because Klaus had hurt his ankle on a mission. He weighed almost nothing now as he was carrying him on his back to the spot at the fence through which Diego had come in.

The car was already in sight as behind them the alarm sirens of the asylum started going off. They had found Klaus gone from his room now. Diego quickened his pace and reached his car shortly after the sirens first went off. Quickly he unlocked the doors and put Klaus on the passenger’s seat before he scrambled in on the other side and kicked his car into gear.

The truth was, as Diego later reached his boxing gym and helped Klaus out of his car and a little while later into his apartment, that he hadn't quite thought what would come after he would have gotten Klaus out of the asylum. He had only thought about getting him out and now that he had succeeded in this, he had no idea what to do. He couldn't bring Klaus to the academy. Not only because his siblings had been against getting Klaus out but because the academy would be the first place the police would be searching for Klaus at.

Gladly, no one knew where Diego lived. It wasn't as if Al would have registered Diego to be living here in his boiler room, after all.

The boxing gym was empty this late at night and outside the thunderstorm was raging even wilder than before as Diego closed the heavy steel door behind him and guided Klaus carefully down the metal stairs into his humble abode. He could see that his brother had a hard time walking down the stairs. His knees were wobbly with every step and he was almost afraid that he would fall.

A bit, Diego was worried because it was so easy for him to get his brother to follow him down the stairs. Klaus was so submissive, so uncharacteristically silent and docile. It was unnerving to him. It was the drugs, he told himself. Only the drugs. As soon as they would have worn off, he would get his brother back, that loud-mouthed flamboyant funny guy he had missed for such a long time.

Diego still couldn't believe it that Klaus was here with him. He could only stare at him in awe, at his wild hair that was now just as soaking wet as his uniform was. His feet were dirty from the mud they had run through. He looked a complete mess now - even more than before and Diego was afraid that, at the next moment, he would wake up and realize that he was alone.

»Come on … You need a bath … and then a warm bed.« He didn't even know if Klaus would sleep but at least he would give him a chance to. Diego led him over to his small bathroom by the hand because otherwise, he felt, Klaus wouldn't even move a muscle. It had taken Diego a lot of convincing for Al to agree to install a proper bathroom and only because Diego had done all the work and brought in the furniture. Before that, Diego had showered and used the toilet upstairs in the locker room. By now, Diego was the proud owner of an old bathtub he had once found on a junkyard and brought in.

The water pipes started screeching as he turned on the hot water to draw a bath. The light inside the room was dim because he only had this one light bulb hanging from the high ceiling. Not that he would care. He didn't need much light in the bathroom and it sufficed for shaving and to patch himself up when he needed to after a night of vigilante work. Klaus just stood in the middle of the room, unmoving as the water started filling the tub and Diego felt his heart shatter a bit just watching how he stood there, his eyes trained at some point above Diego’s right shoulder again as if he could see something Diego couldn't see. Perhaps he could.

»Here, let me help you.« Diego muttered to fill the silence. He wasn't even sure if Klaus heard him. Only now as he had time to take in his appearance properly, he took note of the bruises on both sides of his forehead right underneath his hairline. Odd. He helped Klaus out of his wet shirt and pinched his lips into a thin line the moment he dropped the shirt on the ground. Klaus was skin and bones beneath the fabric of his clothes. He could see his ribs protruding under his skin. Klaus had always been thin, mainly because he had been growing so fast and had had a hard time actually getting a bit of meat on those bones. Klaus had always been eating while growing up. There had never been an hour when he had not seen Klaus munching on something and yet he hadn't been able to fatten up a little.

This, however, was worse than he ever was. He looked as if he was wasting away while Diego was watching. He looked as if he had been starved deliberately.

Getting Klaus’ pants and boxers off was a bit strange. It wouldn't be the first time that he saw his brother naked, of course, but the situation was just awkward. He tried being clinical about it. It was easier if he would just be clinical about it and treat his brother like he would treat himself. As he was naked, Diego first grabbed a towel and dunked it into the water to clean off his feet from the mud before he carefully helped Klaus into the tub and prompted him to sit down before he turned off the water.

He wanted to say something - anything - but in the end, Diego kept his silence as above them the thunder was still raging over the city. There was nothing he could say, he thought. He was stunned to have Klaus back. He was stunned to see him alive and breathing after twelve long years of thinking he was dead. Maybe he didn't need to say anything now. He was afraid that anything he would say might burst this bubble in which Klaus was still alive and here with him. Much rather Diego would live in such a world even if it would be just a dream than in a world without Klaus.

And so, Diego just sat down on the edge of the bathtub and gently brushed his fingers through Klaus’ hair and rested his hand on his head. The silence was heavy between them but as he felt how Klaus leaned into his touch all of the sudden, Diego was sure that somehow they would manage to get through this.

 

**-End of Chapter 4-**


	5. Chapter 5

A few hundred feet from the Umbrella Academy a lightning bolt hit the wooden power line pole that carried the power lines for the block the academy was located on. This night was in and of itself not a remarkable one. It was just one of many stormy nights in autumn but, as the power cut out, it did so with a deafening crash before Klaus Hargreeves’ whole world was tinted in darkness. Without the faint lights coming from the street below or shining through the crack underneath his bedroom door from the hallway, the night was even darker and even more terrifying than it usually was for the little boy.

He sat up with a jolt as if he himself had been hit by the lightning bolt. He could feel the electricity tingling in the tips of his fingers as thunder was growling above his head like a wild beast ready to feast on him. His fingers curled tighter into his woolen blanket as he pulled it a bit higher against his chest in his sitting position. Outside of his window, which was right next to his bed, the world was black. Not simply dark, not simply the absence of light either. He couldn't even make out the other side of the courtyard. He was staring into the dark maw of a terrifying monster that came from the depths of the abyss of a terrifying maelstrom.

He couldn't even make out his own reflection in the window and for a moment he was afraid that he was lost in the world of the dead, that there was no window, no bed, no room. He gripped the blanket tighter with trembling fingers as that sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach grew worse and worse. What if he was lost with the ghosts that were always around him? Was there no one here who would be able to help him?

Another lightning bolt flashed from the sky and smashed into the lightning rod on the roof of the building across the courtyard, tinting the world into a bright light for just a second. For no longer than half a heartbeat, Klaus was able to see his reflection in the glass of his window, pale like a ghost. It was pure instinct that catapulted him out of his bed and onto his feet. He was at his door within two steps before he stopped dead in his tracks, his left hand already hovering over the doorknob.

He wanted to go to Diego. Everything inside of him pleaded with him to go to Diego. He always went to Diego during storms. However, his father's words were still echoing through his mind ever since the last time Sir Reginald had caught Klaus in Diego’s room. » _Leave your siblings alone, Number Four!_ « He had yelled at him the last time. » _You are too old to be afraid of the dark, Boy! Your siblings need their rest and you need to learn how to deal with your fears alone like everyone else!_ «

Klaus knew that he was maybe a little more afraid of stupid things than his siblings were. That had never been a secret and why would his siblings be afraid of anything anyway? He, on the other hand, was afraid of the dark, of thunderstorms, of ghosts, and of tight spaces. He was afraid to be alone. He was afraid to drown in the darkness around him. He was afraid of his siblings sometimes. He was afraid that he would grow up and still no one would take him seriously.

Behind his back, his siblings laughed about him every day and Klaus knew this. Even Vanya was tougher than he was. Diego never said anything when Klaus would crawl into his bed and neither did Ben. Not even Five or Luther would say anything. That didn't make it any less wrong though. His siblings only wouldn't say anything because they took pity on him. His father was right. He was weak and silly for being afraid of everything around him.

And still, as the thunder roared again above his head, Klaus bit back a whimper that tried to escape his throat and hurried back to his bed where he pulled the blanket over his head immediately. »One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.« He counted quietly underneath his blanket before repeating it. Ben had taught him to count out the members of their family when he would be afraid. He didn't know why but Ben told him that it would calm him down. It didn't do it for Klaus, though.

He let out a shriek as the thunder reached the academy. His room was freezing cold and he knew that he wasn't alone anymore. He didn't need to pull down his blanket to see the old woman with the crooked teeth standing in the corner of his room. She was there again, watching him with hungry eyes, waiting to strike, waiting to scream in his face. She was only one of the ghoulish faces he would see in the safety of his own bedroom at night.

The sound of a creak in the silence of his bedroom made him almost jump again. It was his door getting opened from the other side and although the more rational part of his mind told him that ghosts couldn't open doors, he still curled in on himself tighter and tried to drown out the sounds around him, the whispers coming from the darkest corner of his room, the rain pounding against his window, the thunder roaring above his head, the pitter-patter of naked feet on the hardwood floor of his room.

As his mattress dipped ever so slightly, he felt his heart sink. »Scoot over.« The voice was familiar and so were the hands that he could feel shove at his back.

»Diego?« Even though the room was pitch black around him, Klaus pulled the blanket down enough to look over his shoulder. He couldn't see anything and his brother might as well be just a hallucination. Diego, however, grabbed Klaus’ blanket and scooted underneath it to flop down beside him.

»Shut up and sleep.«

»What are you doing here?«

»I’m afraid of the storm.« Diego responded quickly as Klaus slowly turned around in his bed so that he would be facing Diego instead of the window. The warmth of Diego’s body filled his entire world. He was the lighthouse in the middle of the storm, guiding Klaus into a safe harbor. Of course, his brother wasn't afraid of the storm. Diego wasn't afraid of anything. He was Diego, after all. He was strong and fearless, unlike Klaus. Yet, Diego was here and he loved him dearly for it. »And now shut up and sleep.«

※※※※※※※

Diego knew that it was only a matter of time until one of his siblings would come for him. They would find him. He didn't harbor any illusions about that. His siblings were not stupid, after all. They would find out where Diego was fighting and training and they would find out that Diego was mopping the floors of the boxing gym to live here. Maybe it would take them a few days but they would find him no matter what. And as soon as they would have succeeded in finding him, they would have found Klaus as well.

That, in the end, was the bigger problem in this entire situation. They would find Klaus here in his crappy little apartment and, knowing his siblings, they would bring him back to the asylum because they were of the opinion that this was the place Klaus belonged. They had never listened to their brother and though Diego wasn't blameless in this regard either, he prided himself on the fact that he had at least tried before he had stopped at one point. Why or when that was, he didn't remember. Perhaps he had stopped trying after Five had vanished. He had seen that Klaus was slowly upgrading from drinking dad’s liquor in the dead of the night to smoking weed and then swallowing pills. He had seen it play out right in front of him and he recalled yelling at Klaus for it.

He recalled punching Klaus.

He recalled finding his bed empty in the middle of the night and searching for him all throughout the city. He recalled finding him exiting some stranger’s car in the parking lot behind a supermarket clutching a bag of pills, looking disheveled and afraid. He recalled jumping Klaus, recalled punching him, recalled beating him up so badly his brother had avoided him for a whole entire month. Everything changed after that and Diego was as much for it to blame as the others were.

Until their siblings would find them here, Diego needed to figure out at least some kind of plan how he wanted to confront them about the situation and maybe even get them on his side in all of this. Of course, getting Luther on his side was almost an impossible feat. He knew this better than most people. Their rivalry had always been harsh and brutal and Diego didn't see a way how this might change anytime soon. Not even for the sake of their brother.

Then again, what kind of family were they anyway? They hadn't been raised as siblings, if they were being honest with themselves. They had been raised as a group of superheroes, an attack group. They were not much different than a boy band that had been cast by some media mogul to maximize profit. They had been students in the Umbrella Academy. In fact, Diego remembered vividly that good old Reggie had never supported their sibling dynamic in a way normal parents would. He had always made a point of making sure that they would treat each other as teammates, comrades, colleagues, brothers, and sisters in arms. They were no family. The only thing holding them together was their shared experiences and the Hargreeves name.

Maybe he was being cynical because, in the end, Diego had seen the others as his siblings but now … meeting them all again at dad’s funeral, they were nothing but strangers to him. Maybe that was why it had been so easy for Diego to be cruel to Vanya and Allison on that god-awful day at that god-awful house.

He was startled by a sound coming from his bed where he had parked Klaus last night after the bath.

His apartment - if he could even call it that without blushing - was tiny and only housed a beaten down sofa which he had found on the bulky waste at one point, a mattress lying on top of a few wooden pallets he got from a supermarket and his small kitchen that only consisted of a dirty fridge, a not very trustworthy stove and a sink. His plastic table looked as if it would break apart on a good day and like an outright safety hazard when actually placing something on top on any other day of the week. His stereo was old and weak and wouldn't properly work half the time. Diego, however, didn't care. It was cozy. But perhaps not the best environment for a man who had been locked up in a mental asylum for the last twelve years.

As he turned around to face the bed, he felt nervous facing Klaus. The truth was, even if Diego didn't like to admit it, that he hadn't thought this whole thing through at all. Seeing Klaus in that asylum had stirred up something deep down inside of Diego that he couldn't quite put his finger on yet but that, nonetheless, had urged him to act quickly. He blamed the bond that he had always had with Klaus. In a way, Diego had always been the closest to number four and number six. He had spent years blaming himself for Klaus’ suicide and now that he knew that Klaus was alive, now that he was here with him, Diego didn't know what to do or how to face his brother.

Still, as Klaus stirred in his bed, Diego slowly inched closer. He had placed a glass of water next to the bed on the ground a while ago before retreating to the sofa to try and catch some z's himself. The idea that Klaus might be waking up now, filled him with dread all of the sudden. He hadn't thought about what would happen as soon as Klaus would be awake again. He hadn't thought about how he wanted to take care of the other man now. Hell, he didn't even know if Klaus needed something or how to care for him properly! He didn't know if he would go into withdrawal when he wouldn't get his medication and how bad that might become.

Klaus’ eyes snapped open at once and stole the opportunity to try and come up with a proper plan from Diego just like that. Before he knew what he was doing, Diego sat down on the edge of the makeshift bed carefully as to not startle the other man too much. It was impossible to tell what was going through Klaus’ head as he woke up and found himself in this one-room apartment with the old boiler in one corner of it. He didn't seem anxious or afraid of Diego last night but now, as Klaus’ eyes fell upon him, his pupils were blown wide in panic.

»Hey« Diego tried keeping his voice soft and calm as his heart was racing in his chest and hammering against his ribcage. »it's okay. It's me, Diego. Remember?«

He couldn't say if the name had any effect on his brother. He just stared at him like he was seeing him for the very first time. »I’m your brother, remember? I … I got you out of that place last night, remember?«

Apparently, his words didn't have the desired effect of calming the other man down. Klaus looked around almost frantically and though Diego expected the other man to finally speak to him, instead only a confused strangled whimper escaped Klaus’ throat at first. He couldn't help but get freaked out by this as he quickly got back to his feet. The sudden movement seemed to startle his brother even more though.

»I … uh … Are you hungry? I’m making breakfast … You’re probably starving.« He looked like he was starving at the very least. All too vividly he still remembered how bad Klaus had looked last night when Diego had helped him into the bathtub. Washing Klaus had seemed weird to Diego and so he hadn't done it. Klaus had just sat in the water until it got cold, not moving an inch until Diego had pulled him to his feet again and wrapped him in a towel before helping Klaus to put on a pair of sweatpants and Diego’s old police academy sweater.

Perhaps to someone looking in on them, it looked like Diego was fleeing from his brother’s side as Diego quickly retreated to his kitchen. It was clear to him now that Klaus was not recognizing him. Not as his brother Diego and not as the man who had freed him from this asylum. For the first time since all of this mess had started, Diego stopped to think about whether or not Klaus had even wanted to be freed. What if his siblings had been right and that asylum was the best place for Klaus? He really should have thought that through a bit more…

Klaus didn't move an inch the entire time Diego was preparing breakfast for them. At least he didn't seem to be moving every time Diego glanced over at him. Klaus was just watching him out of wide green eyes like a scared animal almost. Maybe he had made a big mistake of taking Klaus from the asylum.

Klaus almost looked like he expected Diego to hurt him as he returned to the bed with a tray and their breakfast. »I remember … Mom always made us eggs and bacon and arranged it in a smiley face. Do you remember? I’m afraid my eggs are not nearly as good as Mom’s though … And … uh … I didn't have any bacon left.«

He didn't dare sitting down on the edge of his own bed again just so that he wouldn't spook his brother any more than he needed to as he placed the tray on the mattress. It became clear pretty quickly to him that his brother wouldn't eat as long as he would stay by his side - If he would eat at all. So, instead, Diego scratched nervously at his neck, grabbed his plate off the tray and walked over to his sofa instead. Only shortly he thought that maybe he shouldn't have given actual cutlery to his mentally unstable brother.

He remembered what Dr. Ashcroft had told him about Klaus, after all. His brother was unstable and prone to self-harming behavior. He wasn’t eating and he wasn’t talking. Two things that just didn't seem to fit with Klaus. Not with his loud-mouthed bubbly brother who had loved to steal pancakes from Diego’s plate when they were younger because he claimed they tasted better when he stole them from his ‘ _favorite big brother_ ’. Looking back on it, Diego had never been able to be angry at Klaus for too long. Number Four just had this way of charming people without even trying, this twinkle in his green eyes.

He kept his back to Klaus as he ate his eggs in silence and for the longest time he didn't hear anything from the bed. It probably took ten minutes until he heard the rustling of the bedding behind him and then the sharp scraping of the cutlery on the plate. Diego felt relief wash over him at this sound. At least he was eating.

As he sat there and listened to the scraping on the plate, Diego's eyes fell upon the sketchbook that was resting on the dusty coffee table before him. It was a simple book in black leather that he had stolen from the academy all those years ago. The most intimate memento he had grabbed from Klaus’ room. He remembered the day clearly. Everything had turned to shit, their group fallen apart after Klaus’ death, and Diego had packed up the stuff he wanted to take with him.

He had already grabbed his backpack and had been ready to leave as he had entered his brother’s room one last time. After Klaus’ death, he had gone to his room often, peeking inside and hoping to find him sitting on his bed knitting another beanie that he would then force Diego or Ben to wear or drawing yet another one of his creepy sketches that were littering the walls. But there had only been his sketchbook lying on his bed and on this day Diego had grabbed it and shoved it in his backpack. It had been an impulse and he had never looked inside until he had found this place at the gym and made it into his home.

Diego’s eyes shifted to the clock on the wall. He needed to go to work soon. The gym would open at ten and he hadn't had time to mop the floors last night. He better got to work. After all, Al had left quite the list for Diego last night and he had a fight this evening. Of course, he didn't want to leave Klaus all alone in his apartment. The risk that he could harm himself in any way was too big but he couldn't sit around and babysit the other man all day long either.

Perhaps, he thought, it would be better if he would give him some time alone. He could only guess that Klaus would sleep through most of the day anyway judging by the bad state he was in. He still felt conflicted as he rose from his spot and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower and dress for the day.

And then there was this pesky thing with the asylum too. Maybe he should call in and ask for another appointment or visit with his brother later today - just to make sure they wouldn't suspect him of stealing his brother from the facility. Then again, even Gladis would be able to put two and two together. Diego had been the only person in ten years to visit Klaus and he had been quite insistent. They knew that Diego had stolen his brother. It would be naive to think that they wouldn't be suspecting him now.

Maybe he better lay low.

As he left the bathroom, his eyes were drawn to Klaus right away. He was sitting upright on the bed, staring at the framed embroidery of his domino and his name that mom had made for Diego all those years ago. Did he recognize it?

Quickly, Diego moved over to the coffee table and picked up the sketchbook. Klaus’ pencil was still stuck in the metal binding. With the sketchbook in hand, he walked over to Klaus and sat down gingerly at the edge of the bed.

»Here … I thought, maybe you would like to draw a bit. You used to love to draw when we were younger.« He put the book down between them on the mattress before he took the tray with Klaus’ almost empty plate and stood again. »I … uh … I-I need to get to work now. But don't worry, I’m not far and will check in on you from time to time. The bathroom is over there … And … uh, help yourself to the fridge, I guess.«

This whole situation was beyond awkward. He felt like a stranger in his own home and he was almost glad to escape from his apartment then. Maybe he needed help to deal with the situation. Oh, what would he give for someone like Vanya being here to help him with Klaus? He couldn't call her though. Then again, Vanya wouldn't rat him out. This just wasn't like her. She would probably be on his side, wouldn't she?

Then again, he had been quite cruel to her when they met at the funeral. They had never been close not even as they tried to form a rock band all those years ago. Well, their little project had been doomed from the start, he assumed. Not that Diego wouldn't be talented as a bassist but … oh well, maybe they just didn't work well together. In the end, she would probably take Allison’s side which was, in essence, Luther's side.

So, maybe he better dealt with this alone - like he always did. Because that was the thing with their family, wasn't it? They pretended like they were a team but, in the end, they only fought for themselves - alone in the darkness of the wilderness that was the world outside of the academy. Even when they had still been all together in the academy, it had been like this. And they had lost one, then two, then three of them out in the wilderness. Just like that.

The gym was still empty as Diego got to work and started mopping the floors. Not long after that, Al arrived at the scene to start his day. Most of his work went by uneventful. He went to check on Klaus shortly around noon but his brother didn't even seem to notice it. He was asleep when Diego poked his head inside and almost looked peaceful how he was lying there. His right arm hung from the bed and from his spot at the door he could see the ‘Hello’ that was tattooed into the palm of his hand.

He remembered the day he had gotten those tattoos. Klaus had been sixteen and he had insisted that his tattoo artist would do both hands at the same day even though it would disable Klaus’ for a couple of days. Klaus had known that their father would be pissed when he would see it and that he might not get the chance to go back to the studio to have his other hand tattooed.  

Very wise of him back then. Of course, their father had flipped his shit and had not allowed Klaus to leave the house for the entire rest of that same year. Not that Klaus would have listened. He had just climbed out of his bedroom window at night. If their father would have realized that Klaus somehow found a way to climb down so far, he would have put bars in front of his window to lock him up.

It was already afternoon and Diego was working out at the side of the ring as he heard the quiet voice of his sister Vanya from the entrance.

»I’m looking for my brother … Diego Hargreeves.«

»Diego?« He heard Al reply with that gruff voice of his, seemingly puzzled that someone would be looking for his wayward employee. He never talked much about his personal life with Al, let alone his family. The only thing Al knew about him was that Diego had once tried to become a cop and had been kicked out of the academy a year into his training.

»Diego! Get your ass over here!« He could see him wave at him and, with a groan, Diego walked away from the punching bag and pulled off his gloves as he walked over to his sister. He didn't care that he was shirtless and glistening with sweat from head to toe. His body was a temple, after all. Vanya showed him a small smile as he walked over to her. Of course, Diego knew exactly why she was here and she probably knew all too well too that Diego knew.

He was almost tempted to think of better times right then. This was a dance they used to dance when they were a lot younger, both privy to the same knowledge and yet refusing to utter a word about it.

»Vanya.« He greeted his sister and gave Al, who was behind the front desk filing through his newspaper, a small nod. »What do you want?« He forced himself to keep his voice gruff and unfriendly just as Vanya would expect of him.

»It's about … about Klaus.«

»What happened?« The look she gave him said very clearly that she already knew that Diego was bullshitting her but that she was going to play along anyway. Never in his life had Diego felt a deeper love for his sister Vanya than at that moment.

Vanya wasn't a very good liar. She knew that Diego had Klaus and she wouldn't rat him out to the other three as long as Diego would not outright tell her that he had him. As long as Diego would keep bullshitting, Vanya could honestly say to her siblings that Diego hadn't told her anything. She wouldn't need to lie. But they both knew that this would be only a temporary fix for the situation. A band-aid. And, sooner or later, every band-aid needed to be ripped off.

»The sanatorium called earlier today, Allison contacted me about that and we all met up earlier.« Before Diego could ask why he hadn't been invited, Vanya continued. »Luther wanted to call you over but I told him that you were working and that I would come over to tell you. Your gym is on my way to work.« Bullshit. »Anyway. Klaus escaped from the asylum last night. I mean … Well, it looks like someone helped him to break out.«

Diego was acutely aware that Al was listening in on their conversation judging by the fact that he very much tried not to look at the two siblings as they were talking.

»Oh.« Diego replied shortly.

»You wouldn't know anything about that by any chance?«

»No.« The answer came too quickly and his other siblings would have called him out on that as well. Not Vanya, though. This was a charade anyway. »No, I was here all night, working and training for my fight tonight.«

»That's true.« Al suddenly chimed up from behind his newspaper without looking at either one of them. »He was here all night, I can vouch for that.«

»Well« Vanya replied and shoved her hands awkwardly in the pockets of her jacket. »it was worth a try. Anyway, the police are searching for Klaus now. If he’s alone he probably didn't get very far. I just thought you should know just in case.«

»I hope they find him soon.«

»Yes … Yes, we are all very worried about him.« Vanya stated with a small smile before she took a step back. »Anyway … Gotta go now. Good luck with your fight tonight.« He raised his hand in a short wave as Vanya left the gym as quickly and silently as she came, leaving Diego with his boss staring daggers at him.

»You are not doing anything stupid in my gym, are you?«

»Of course not, Al.« Diego replied seriously and returned to his training. Stupid? No. Insane. Yes, that would be the proper word to describe what Diego was doing in Al’s gym.

When Diego returned to his apartment, at last, the night was already dark and a thunderstorm had hit the town once more. He had won the fight and taken a shower upstairs in the locker room just so that he wouldn't wake up Klaus if his brother happened to sleep at his return. Now, a few hundred bucks heavier, Diego silently crept into the apartment while thunder was roaring above his head and lightning flashed through the window that was located right underneath the ceiling where he had his bed.

He was not even surprised to find Klaus wide awake, trembling in the dim light coming from outside. Klaus had always been terrified of the dark and of thunderstorms. Their father had all too often scolded Klaus for his fears, told him that he should man up and stop _harassing_ his siblings at night when he couldn't sleep because the ghosts were tormenting him.

Diego had never quite understood that ghost thing really. He couldn't see what Klaus saw and because of that, he felt, he would never be able to fully grasp what Klaus was going through every day of his life. What he did know, though, was that Klaus used to seem calmer and more relaxed when he wasn’t alone.

Slowly, Diego walked over to the sofa to lay down and go to sleep. However, as he laid there and stared at the ceiling in the darkness of the apartment, he couldn't find rest. It could be the fact that Klaus was here in his apartment, to begin with or the fact that Klaus was so restless.

He felt uncomfortably reminded of their childhood. For the longest time, he just laid there and stared into the darkness, trying to comprehend just what happened in the last few days and trying to figure out how to move forward. If the police were involved in finding Klaus, they would soon arrive at the gym as well. At least that was what Diego expected.

He was not officially registered anywhere so that would make it a lot harder for them to find Diego. For all they knew, he was homeless. However, if his siblings knew where he was working out, the police would soon find him too. He needed a plan. He needed Klaus to work with him on that. He needed Klaus to trust him and to talk to Diego.

It was an especially loud roar of thunder outside that made Klaus jump on the bed and reminded Diego of how often his brother had come to him in search of comfort at night. He hesitated for a few more minutes, listening to the noises of utter distress coming from the other man, before he rose from the sofa, grabbed his woolen blanket and walked over to the bed.

It was like playing Russian roulette. So many things could go wrong. It was risky what he was going to do. He could scare his brother even more than the storm outside or he could win back his trust, maybe even get Klaus to finally remember him. His heart ached as he walked over to the bed and saw his brother in so much pain and fear. He had always felt anguish seeing Klaus afraid or hurt in any way. His desire had been to protect - always.

So, as he sat down on the edge of the bed, he followed this desire of his. Klaus was lying on the other side of the bed by now. He had moved a lot throughout the day as it seemed and so Diego didn't need to shove him over as he laid down beside him. »Can I sleep here?« He muttered into the darkness as he pulled his blanket over his tired body. Klaus was suddenly completely still at his side but he could feel his body relax slowly with each passing second. »I’m afraid of the storm.«

 

**-End of Chapter 5-**


	6. Chapter 6

He woke up feeling like someone was sitting on his chest. He couldn't breathe. No matter how hard he tried getting air into his lungs, his throat just clamped shut and wouldn't let any air into his body. He was going to die, staring into the face of a ghoul looming over him. The creature had grey skin and sharp cheekbones. He looked like his father. He looked like he remembered his father to look like, reaching out to him with long, dreadful claws.

»Number Four!« The ghoul hissed and his words were echoed from all the other ghosts that had gathered inside the room. His room. No, not his room. This wasn't the white desert he knew from the asylum. The room was grey and cluttered. He wasn't tied to the bed and yet he couldn't move his legs. He was paralyzed, completely unable to move a bone in his body.

»Number Four!« The ghoul yelled again and its voice was vibrating in his skull. He let out a whine but the sound was swallowed in his throat as he stared at those sharp yellow teeth, the lips curled back into a terrible snarl. »Get a grip! You need to get your act together.« It was the voice of his father yelling at him but it didn't match up with the sounds coming from the ghoul as it leaned in closer and closer until their noses almost touched. He could feel its hands everywhere on his skin, biting into his flesh, cold as ice and uncomfortably wet.

He wanted to get away, to escape and get the voices to shut up but he was helpless. The weight of the ghoul resting on top of his own body held him down and made it impossible for him to flee. He felt dizzy as he tried and tried and tried to breathe.

 _Diego_ , he thought. He needed Diego. Diego would know what to do. He needed his brother, he needed Diego. But Diego wasn't here. Diego was gone. Luther was gone. Allison was gone. Vanya was gone. They were all gone and didn't care for him anymore. They had left him to rot, hadn't they? He didn't even remember their faces anymore.

He could see the awful grew maw with the row of crooked sharp teeth of the beast above him move closer and closer until it almost pressed against his own open mouth but he managed to force his body to turn on its side just in time to wriggle free from its restraints. He didn't even feel the impact as he slammed to the ground before he scrambled to get to his feet and started running.

※※※※※※※

He woke up to the sound of meaty fists hammering against the metal door of his apartment. Diego jolted upright at once as the sound filled his tiny apartment space and echoed in his head. Luther. That was the first thought that crossed his mind at the sound. Luther was here and was hammering his humongous fists against the steel of his door. It took him a moment, a few precious seconds perhaps, before he realized that the spot beside him on the bed was vacated and slowly cooling off and that this was indeed bothering. Another few seconds later and Diego came to realize that the banging sound was not coming from the door at all but rather the bathroom.

Klaus!

Perhaps he had fallen and now tried to get Diego’s attention! He was at the bathroom door at once. It didn't even take him a minute to get there after he initially woke up. His first instinct was to knock but then he just ripped the door open instead. He didn't find his brother on the ground with some kind of injury as he might have expected but rather standing next to the wall, ramming his head against it over and over again. There was already blood staining the wall and Klaus’ forehead as well.

»Jesus Christ!« Diego let out and though this would have normally startled his brother yesterday, Klaus didn't even flinch but proceeded to smash his own face against the wall before Diego pulled him away from it and, out of instinct perhaps, into his arms instead. »What are you doing?«

He knew that he wouldn't get an answer and yet he couldn't help it. Seeing Klaus hurting himself like that made him sick to the stomach and though his initial gut reaction would be to react with anger and fury, he swallowed down the bile in his throat and pulled Klaus over to the toilet where he forced him to take a seat to get the first aid kit.

The more rational part of his brain wanted to drive Klaus to the hospital to have him checked out but, of course, that was nothing he could do in light of their current situation. Instead, he crouched down on the bathroom floor in front of his brother as he started cleaning up his wounds as if it would be routine for them to do that - maybe, a long time ago, it had been routine for them. Still, Diego was vibrating with anger while Klaus was staring into space as if his brother wasn’t even here.

»Why did you do that?« He mumbled more to himself than his brother, not expecting an answer from the other man if his behavior until now was any indication.

»They wouldn't stop screaming at me.«

He stopped his hand midway as he was reaching out to his face again to clean off the blood from his forehead with a soft wet cloth, startled by the sound of his brother’s voice. It sounded raspy and hoarse and a lot deeper than the last time he had heard it.

»Who?« His own question was so silent that Diego wasn’t quite sure he had asked it.

»The demons.« Klaus gasped so quietly that Diego almost didn't hear it at first. All of this was so wrong. Klaus was not supposed to be so silent and timid. »There are so many here. They are too loud.«  

Diego dropped the cloth at this and put his hands on both sides of Klaus’ face to force his brother to look at him. His green eyes were still dull and missed the vibrancy they once had, his pupils just pinpricks in an endless sea of green. However, at least he seemed clearer and for once, Diego didn't quite know if that was a good thing. He had known that the withdrawal from his medication would cause problems but he hadn't expected it to turn this bad so quickly. And yet, at least Klaus was talking, at least Klaus was actually acknowledging Diego’s existence. He didn't even flinch as Diego took hold of his face.

»They are not real, Klaus.« He urged and felt terribly all the same because he knew that it wasn’t quite so easy - not for Klaus. Only because Diego might not be able to see them, that didn't mean they were not real. To Klaus, those ghosts and demons and what-not were very much real and had always been very much real.

»They can't harm you.« He corrected himself with a small frown before he brushed his fingers carefully through Klaus’ outgrown curls. At this moment, he wasn’t even sure anymore who he tried to comfort and whether or not his words held any truth. Who was he to say if those specters weren’t able to hurt Klaus in some way? Maybe he was still too surprised that his brother was even allowing Diego to touch him and couldn't quite think straight. »Not as long as I’m around. Remember? That's what I’m for, right? Diego is keeping the ghosts at bay, right?«

That was what Klaus had once said and it seemed a lifetime ago that those words had been uttered with so much childlike innocence that it still made his heart clench when he would think about it now. Despite the nod he managed to get from Klaus, his brother squeezed his eyes shut and dug his trembling fingers into his knees while Diego went back to cleaning his wounds and patching him up. He really needed to get Klaus checked out by a professional. He knew that. He wanted to go talk to Mom about Klaus but that was not possible, of course.

»Hey … Do you want me to cut your hair? It's grown quite a lot.« It was a shot in the dark and for a second he remembered how much of a fuss his brother had always made when Mom went to cut his hair. He had cried and tried to hide until one of his brothers had finally gotten a hold of him and held him down on the chair so that Mom could cut his hair without hurting him, all the while Klaus had been sobbing like the world was going to end.

Reginald had been very strict about the way he had wanted his boys to have their hair. They had all had the same haircut and Klaus’ wild curls had still done their best effort to defy him simply out of spite. Now, however, his brother nodded shortly and that in and of itself was alarming. He refused to say that the time in the asylum had broken Klaus.

His brother was stronger than this and he knew it. Klaus’ core personality was one of spite and defiance. He wasn't so easily broken and made into a docile little puppet. For now, however, Diego was going to accept it and use this new submissiveness of his brother to his advantage if that meant to get Klaus to look like a proper human being again. He coaxed him gently back to the bathtub after he had gotten back to his feet and made Klaus sit on the edge.

»Don't worry« Diego huffed as he opened the mirror cabinet over his sink and pulled out a pair of scissors. »I’m usually cutting my own hair because I’m a poor fuck and I’m not gonna give you the hairstyle dad wanted either.«

That seemed to bring a bit of life back into those green eyes of which he had been fascinated by all his life. »Dad.« Klaus muttered quietly as Diego went over to him and started to comb out Klaus’ curls as best as he could with the simple comb he had. Not that his own hair needed much combing usually. Klaus’ hair, on the other hand, was knotted and long and it was obvious that no one had really taken care of it. Almost he suspected that the nurses had probably just shaven it off every few months when it had started to grow too long. »Where is Dad?«

Diego stopped what he was doing only shortly. He didn't want to accidentally hurt Klaus just because his brother might react a bit heavily to the news of their father's death. In fact, a part of him didn't want to tell him the truth at all. Maybe it was all a bit much all things considered. Then again, Klaus and their father had always had a rather rocky relationship and so he doubted that his brother would erupt into tears at the news of his passing. The Klaus that Diego knew would have probably rejoiced to hear that news.

»Dad … Uh … Dad died.« He then finally sighed. Sooner or later his brother would have to learn the truth anyway, he thought. The newspapers were full of their father’s death and the rumors that were spreading about it. The media was almost worse than Luther in his obsession with their father’s sudden death and possible murder. Hell, as if it would be so much of a stretch to say that an old man like their father would die of a heart attack in his sleep!

»He had a heart attack last week. His funeral was only a few days ago, actually. That's when we found out that you were in that asylum for all those years.« He sat down on the edge of the tub for a moment, taking one of Klaus’ slender hands in his own. Klaus’ hands had always been cold. »We thought you were dead, Klaus.«

It felt so good to be able to talk to his brother again. It felt so good to say his name and have him respond to it even. Diego didn't harbor any kind of illusions that Klaus would be better in no time, that he would return to his old self in a matter of just a few days but perhaps they could get there, in time. He only needed to be patient with him. And, very much like Klaus and any other of his siblings, Diego had never been the most patient guy.

Klaus didn't react the way he thought he would to the news. He just stared blankly ahead again, staring at the wall where his blood still stained the white paint as if he could see something Diego wasn't able to see there. Diego finally took to cutting his hair and for the longest while, the sharp sound of the snip-snapping of the scissors was all that could be heard inside the bathroom. Slowly Klaus’ hair was filling the bottom of his bathtub inch by inch that Diego cut carefully until he was satisfied with the result. Already his brother looked a little more like his old self again but his jaw was covered in stubbles and after a moment of hesitation, Diego saw to that problem as well.

He wished he would be able to take Klaus outside for a walk, have him take a breath of fresh air but he might as well call the police over and present his brother on a silver platter if he was going to go out with him. He had to lay low and behave as inconspicuous as humanly possible. Maybe he too should not leave the gym at all for the next couple of days. No vigilante work - of course - and no grocery shopping. Al was living just above the gym in a fancy apartment. Perhaps he could ask his boss to maybe get him a few things from the store as well next time.

»Klaus.« He turned to his brother as he finally wiped his face clean with a wet cloth. »I need to go to work soon … But I’m right upstairs - Just like yesterday. I’m gonna buy as lunch again and we could eat together if you want. Perhaps we could go for a walk tonight.«

»I’m not allowed to leave my room.« Klaus muttered without even looking at him, his eyes still fixed on the blood on the wall. »Nurse Parker said I was too dangerous. I hurt the doctor … I’m a bad person.«

»No, you're not.« He argued without even thinking about it. Klaus was many things but a bad person he was certainly not - never had been. »They brainwashed you, Klaus.«

It was heartbreaking to him to hear those things coming out of Klaus’ mouth but he knew that his own words didn't have much of an effect on his brother. He was too deep down the rabbit hole at this point. That didn't mean it hurt any less, though. He wanted to grab his brother and shake him, he wanted to tell Klaus how much he had missed him, how heartbroken he had been when he thought he had lost him, how angry he had been when he thought he hadn't been there to save him like he was supposed to.

»I want Diego.« Klaus muttered quietly into the silence of the room. His words were like a punch to the guts. »I miss Diego.« His brother still didn't recognize him and he didn't know how stupid he had been to believe that. The only reason why Klaus had allowed him to touch him and cut his hair and clean him up was that he thought he was not allowed to fight back. What did Klaus see when he was looking at him? Was he seeing yet another nurse? He seemed afraid of his nurses from the asylum, though. Maybe that was why he was so submissive.

»I _am_ Diego, Klaus.« He whispered quietly because he didn't quite trust his voice not to break.

»No.« Klaus replied almost too vehemently with a small shake of his head. »You aren’t Diego … Diego is younger.«

»Klaus … How old do you think you are?«

»Seventeen.« The answer came too quickly for it not be clear that he was saying the truth. Klaus thought that he was still a kid. He didn't even know how much time had passed and perhaps now was not the time to tell him. He wanted to bring Klaus to the academy. Maybe that would help his brother to remember everything but as long as his siblings would remain insufferable assholes there was no chance he would actually risk that. He just wanted to keep him safe even if that meant he needed to protect Klaus from their own siblings. It wouldn't be the first time either.

He didn't know what to do after that. He just cleaned up the bathtub and let Klaus take a shower as he was making breakfast. He really needed supplies soon. After Klaus left the bathroom, he actually came over to the kitchen to sit down at the table and they ate breakfast in silence. He didn't want to leave Klaus alone in his apartment with this head injury and the risk that Klaus would hurt himself again while he wouldn't be here. Yet, he couldn't babysit him the entire day. Not if he didn't want to draw suspicion at least - even though Al probably already knew what was going on. Al was a simple man. He could turn a blind eye to stuff like this going on in his boiler room as long as Diego was doing his work and not saying anything.

He hadn't expected Patch to come to the gym. He hadn't seen her in a while - not after the last time she had threatened to put him behind bars while Diego had only tried to help her solve one of her stupid little crimes. They could have had a whirlwind romance a long time ago, he assumed and he couldn't deny that he was still happy to see her nine out of ten times. This time, however, was the one in ten times that he did not look forward to a conversation with her.

Her gaze was stern as she walked through the gym and past the various fighters that were training already or greeting Diego in passing while he was working around the gym. »Eudora!« He greeted her and tried to make it sound nonchalant. Of course, he failed and he knew that too. Their father had not raised them to be liars and that was why they were so bad at it. »What can I do for you? Need help with a case? Finally tired of your stupid rules and procedures and ready to try this my way?«

»I told you not to call me that.« She sighed but, as always, wouldn't even begin to buy into his charming little words. Well, he had never been much of a flirt. It wasn't as if he hadn't had his fair share of romance in the past but he was not a flirt either. He was too direct, too brash. Some girls liked that. Some girls didn't.  

»But it's your name, _Eudora_.« He teased with a smirk that only caused her to roll her eyes. She was wearing this white turtleneck he liked to see on her so much. She looked like a proper detective in her leather jacket on top of that turtleneck with her badge around her neck on a chain. Of course, because unlike Diego, she had actually graduated from the academy and started her career while Diego had spent his nights doing his vigilante work and mopping floors, sometimes living the stereotype of the poor Mexican and taking every odd job people threw at him. Well, his life could be worse and now he got his brother back too.

»I’m here about your brother Klaus.« Eudora gave one of her best long-suffering sighs. He prided himself on the fact that he had helped her perfect those sighs over the past couple of years. She would have never gotten so good at that if it hadn't been for him.

»I heard that he is alive…« She seemed uncomfortable for a moment. Of course, she knew about his history with his family. He had told her about Klaus and Ben and Five a long time - a lifetime - ago when they had still been starry-eyed rookies at the academy and still been very much in love.

Back then, Diego had been certain that Patch was the one for him and he had trusted her with his deepest secrets. He had thought that if there was a woman out there who would be able to handle his temper and his social awkwardness, it would be Patch. He had dreamed of a life of crime fighting at her side. Like Batman and … well, Batgirl. Bad allegory. Well, Ben was the comic book person in their family.

He remembered telling her in a drunken rage about Klaus. It had been the anniversary of his death and the last time Diego had really gotten drunk. He remembered crying in her arms like a baby about his dead brother and about the guilt he felt because he hadn't been there to save him, because he hadn't been there to see how bad he was doing and help him. While their other siblings had just stopped saying Klaus’ name as if it would be an insult, Diego had been eaten up by guilt and self-loathing. And, oh, how many people had he pulled away from the edge of a bridge or roof in the past twelve years and after he had started his vigilante work all in honor of his dead brother?

»Yeah.« He brushed a hand over his face. »Turned out the old man was even more of an asshole than originally expected. He lied to us, locked him up and threw the key away.«

»I also heard your brother suddenly escaped from the asylum he stayed at for the last twelve years.« She obviously didn't want to discuss the late Sir Hargreeves now. She was a woman on a mission and she never strayed from her path when she was on a mission. »Which is funny because his doctor said that Klaus was barely able to move on his own - let alone escape from a building like this without anyone noticing. Odd how in the night of his disappearance the person responsible for the laundry at that night called in sick and sent a replacement no one had ever seen before.«

»Odd indeed.« Diego nodded and Patch tilted her head to the side like an owl. Oh, he knew that look.

»Do you want to tell me anything?«

»Not at all, Eudora.« He hummed. »I just hope you guys find my brother quickly and I wonder why you got involved in this. Aren't you homicide? I didn't think missing people were your thing.«

»The colleague that is handling the case knows that I know you and asked me to talk to you about it. See if you can tell me something new.« With a small and almost amused little chuckle she added: »He’s afraid of you and your knives. So, I take it that you didn't see your brother?«

»Nope.« He quickly replied perhaps a bit too fast. »And if I do … I will call you right away of course.«

Patch put a comforting hand on his left biceps and gave it a small squeeze. »I’m happy for you, Diego. I know how much your brother means to you. I can't imagine how glad you must be to know that he is alive after all this time.« He could smell the ‘but’ creeping up on him like an angry fart lingering in the air even before she opened her mouth again. »But … you really should contact us when you hear of him in some way. Your brother is in dire need of medical attention as far as his doctors are concerned. He is a danger to himself and others and if he is off his drugs - God knows what might happen to him.«

He gave a small nod as he pinched his mouth into a thin line. No matter how often people would tell him that his brother was dangerous, Diego didn't care. Of course, he had seen how dangerous Klaus was towards himself but as long as Diego could keep an eye on him-

 _No … No, Diego, that's not a solution to this problem_ , he thought. _You can't babysit him forever. You need to come up with a plan right fucking now! Eudora is right and you know that!_

He had always liked to criticize Luther for his lack of forming a proper plan and now that he was in this situation he was unable to come up with any kind of plan himself. He knew that he couldn't hide his brother forever. He needed to get him somewhere where he could properly help him and care for him if his condition would get worse because Eudora was right. Of course, she was right. She was always right. Klaus had been pumped full with medication throughout the last twelve years and what Diego was doing to him now was pretty much cold turkey. He was amazed that his brother seemed to function so well under these circumstances, to begin with.

Well, maybe he was not doing too well, Diego thought later that same day as he returned to his apartment. He had come home for lunch as promised and had found Klaus asleep. As he came back in the evening, Klaus was sitting on the concrete ground and was talking to a naked spot on the wall before him.

He didn't even notice his return to the apartment as he was talking to the wall and his voice was so quiet that Diego could hardly make out any words at all. He could make out a name his brother said, though. _Dave_. And the face his brother made when he said the name … Diego didn't know what to think about it. He seemed hurt and pained talking to this invisible person and so he closed the apartment door a little louder than strictly necessary to gain Klaus’ attention.

He flinched a little as he looked up at the door and it was the first time since he had freed his brother that he looked actually uncertain of Diego’s presence in the room. Almost as if he was afraid. Not afraid of Diego per se. But afraid of what? Afraid because Diego had caught him talking to himself? He probably had gotten punished for behavior like this in the asylum in the past.

Diego, however, smiled his best reassuring smile as he walked down the stairs.

»Hey … How about we go outside to grab a bite to eat?« It was dark outside and though it might be risky, he wanted to give his brother the chance to actually go out in the world again. He had been locked away from the real world for far too long.

※※※※※※※

He was afraid. Afraid of the man that called himself Diego and acted as if he was his brother. Afraid of the situation he was in. He felt fuzzy around the edges, his world was blurry and dizzying most of the time. He could tell that something wasn't quite right. He was used to his head feeling as if it was filled with cotton balls but that wasn't the case anymore.  Instead, his senses seemed entirely too sharp and not sharp at all at the same time. He was hot and cold at the same time and his hands were trembling too much for him to even hold the pencil when he tried to draw in the sketchbook the strange man gave to him. It was his sketchbook. He recognized it.

Diego.

He didn't believe that the man was saying the truth and yet … Klaus had not recognized the man that had stared back at him from the mirror a little earlier in the day. He had almost recognized the eyes of the man staring back at him but … it was a stranger who had been staring back at him. And then he had first seen his brother again. Ben.

He had just appeared inside the room out of nowhere and Klaus had been so happy to see him again. He didn't look like he had the last time Klaus had seen him. He hadn't been covered in blood with a gaping hole in his chest. He had been fine, wearing his favorite clothes with a smile on his face as Klaus stared at him in awe. He had been vibrant and alive and Klaus started to realize that everything had just been a nightmare.

Ben never died. He had never been tied to a bed, never been forced to take drugs that would make him forget his name, never been poked with needles, never been examined like a frog on a table, never had strange hands touching him in the darkness of the night. All of that had just been a nightmare because Ben was alive and he was well.

»It all seemed so real.« Klaus whispered after they had sat down in this strange apartment. He didn't know how he got here or why. Maybe he had run away again and got himself in trouble with some guy - this guy who called himself Diego and tried to convince Klaus that he was his brother. »But you are here and you are alive.«

Ben sat on the ground with his back against the wall and Klaus sat down cross-legged in front of him. He wanted to reach out and touch his brother, to hug him but there was something stopping him from reaching out. Ben had an odd look on his face at those words. His face had this weird expression it only ever got when he didn't want to say something to protect him from the truth. He knew that look. He had seen it before. He remembered a day at the academy when his siblings had talked and then stopped when Klaus entered the room and later Ben had sat in his room, listening to Klaus wonder if they had been talking about him.

Hadn't this happened shortly after he thought his brother died?

»But if all of this never happened … I never really met Dave, right?« Klaus sighed and drove a hand through his curly hair. »I miss him sometimes. But if I never met him … what is there to miss? He was so gorgeous, though. He was beautiful.« He added even quieter. »Beautiful. And I would have been foolish enough to follow him anywhere, even to the front line if necessary.«

»Klaus…« Ben spoke up gently. »What happened to Dave? In your nightmare, I mean.«

»Dave died.« Klaus whispered. »He died. One day he was there and then he wasn't. I miss him.«

The sharp metal sound of the apartment door being shut made him jump out of his skin almost and as he looked up to the stairs leading to the door, he could see this man who was always clad in black. He reminded him of Diego with all the knives attached to his belts.

He had Diego’s crocheted little handkerchief that Mom once made for him. They all got something like this. On Diego’s, she had knitted his domino mask, a pair of two knives, and his name. He remembered that his own was showing a Ouija board. It was beyond him why this stranger had this thing. Diego had always treasured everything their mother had made for them. Then again, they had once met another crazy stalker who had grabbed Allison right in front of their house because he wanted to be like them and join the academy.

»Hey…« The stranger smiled. »How about we go outside to grab a bite to eat?«

 

**-End of Chapter 6-**


	7. Chapter 7

The night was dark and the air after the recent storms fresh and crisp as Diego was strolling through the park, ignoring the voice in the back of his head that told him how much of a mistake this was. It wasn't like Diego wouldn't know that he was playing with fire here. Klaus was beyond unstable - even more so now that his medication was wearing off slowly with each passing hour more and more. He was fidgeting. He was trembling like a leave in the wind from a slight fever creeping up on him already. Diego could see the sheen of sweat dancing on Klaus’ forehead beneath his curls whenever they passed through the cone of light of a street lamp.

He was shivering in the cold night air of the dying days of February. Maybe they should turn around, he thought as they were walking through the nightly park but he wanted to give his brother the chance to use his legs, smell the fresh air around them and break free from his chains for ones.

No matter from which angle he would look at the situation, the result would stay the same. Klaus had been locked up for too long in a small white room, far removed from everything alive and breathing and green. Klaus had always been drawn to the freedom of the outside world and more often than not Diego had found his brother sitting under the tree in the courtyard reading a book or one of Ben’s comics that he stole from Ben’s room.

Being surrounded by the dead at all times, screaming and clawing at him in an attempt to get his attention, Klaus had desired to be near all things living and breathing and beautiful from an early age on. Why his brother would have wanted to spend so much time around Diego then, was beyond him, in retrospect.

»I remember how you used to follow me around like a duckling.« It wasn't very much like Diego to bask in memories like that.  He was not a very sentimental man, to begin with. Except when it was about Klaus, apparently, or Mom. It was a fact of his life that he cherished every memory he had of his mother and he didn't care that people called him a Momma’s boy. Why would he? His real mother had sold him for a few dimes, so it was only natural that he had latched onto the first motherly figure he had come across.

»I was so annoyed when I would turn around and there you were - standing right behind me. You stopped doing that at some point and I never found out why. Of course, I never admitted it but I started to miss it.«

He would have never said something like this to Klaus in the past but the situation was as different as could be now and Diego had learned from Klaus’ fake death, that he would rather not waste any more time not saying the things he wanted his brother to know.  Now that his brother had miraculously returned from the world of the dead, Diego no longer wanted to act cool around him just for the sake of being cool. He had gotten a second chance and he would use it.

Back then, twelve years ago, he had thought his brother had killed himself and he had blamed himself in parts for not being a better brother, for not being there for Klaus when his brother had needed him the most. Now was the time to remedy that mistake and, by God, he would.

Not again would he allow his brother to slip right through his fingers like this.  

However, talking to Klaus these days was like talking to a wall. The loud-mouthed bubbly brother he knew from his childhood days was dead and gone as it seemed. It wasn’t just the fact that this version of his brother was no longer really talking or making jokes like Diego was used to from Klaus. He needed time to recover from whatever had been done to him behind those walls of the asylum. He needed time to heal, time to return to the real world. No, this change in character and attitude had been expected. Diego had known that Klaus wouldn't be just Klaus again as soon as he would free him from the asylum.

Nevertheless, when Diego would look at him now he saw a stranger.  If he wouldn't know that this man who was walking by his side was his brother he wouldn't quite recognize him. Sure, he had Klaus’ distinct green eyes, he had those tattoos on his hands and on his arm, he had the same sharp cheekbones, the same curly hair and lean physique but he was no longer the boy whom Diego had buried twelve years ago but a man of almost thirty years.

If it weren't for his greyish skin and the dark circles under his eyes, he would be gorgeous. No, he _was_ gorgeous. Klaus had always had this aura about him, the way he walked and moved. Something from another world, perhaps. Diego couldn't quite explain it. He had never been able to put it into words but it was even stronger now, twelve years since he had last seen his brother, that feeling in the pit of his stomach when he would look at him.

»Do you remember how we all learned to drive with sixteen but you refused to?« Diego broke the nightly silence again. They should better return soon. It wasn't safe out here. Sure, there was not a soul around in the park but the risk they were taking out here was still much too big. »I never understood why and I asked you about it. Ben asked you too. But you just said that you wouldn't feel safe behind the wheel and that you would feel much safer if one of us would be driving you around.« He chuckled at that but, of course, he didn't get a response. »Back then I thought you were just lazy or responsible enough to know that you better shouldn't drive.« Even back then Klaus had been high most of the time, after all. »I think I understand it better now.«

Suddenly, there was movement at his side as Klaus looked at his right-hand side - not at Diego but at _nothing_ at all - and nodded before a small sob escaped his throat. It was a small strangled little sound that wouldn't connect to the big presence of his brother. Such a small weird sound. So alien coming from Klaus’ throat.

»I want to go home.« He whispered. »I want to see Diego … I want Mom.«

It broke his heart to hear those words and there was no way around it. The truth was that Diego had always been a mommy’s boy and everyone in the family knew this. It was no secret and although it had been often enough used as an insult against him, mainly from Luther, he had never cared about it. However, Diego had always been aware that Klaus too had always been close to Mom in a way - a very different way than Diego.

The way he had been looking for comfort in her had been different than the way Diego came to her for comfort. He remembered how often he had found Klaus sitting by her side in the picture gallery or be with her in the kitchen helping her bake or cook something in silence and Mom had been able to read that. She had known when to say something and when to be quiet around her loudest and _buzziest_ boy.

Carefully, Diego took hold of Klaus’ left hand and directed him to a bench by the side of the path right underneath a lamppost. He sat down and Klaus followed his example at once because he had been trained to do as he was told. He had been trained to be timid and submissive and Diego, at least in Klaus’ eyes, was nothing but another caretaker who was giving him orders and allowed to push him around.

»Klaus look at me.« He urged his brother as quietly as he could and though Klaus hesitated for a moment, he finally looked at his face but Diego noticed that his eyes were not meeting Diego’s at all. He was staring at a small spot underneath Diego’s left eye. It wasn’t important. »Remember the tattoo we all got when we were thirteen?«

Well, Diego remembered that day as if it had been just yesterday. In fact, he would almost go as far as to claim that his fear of needles came from that very day as this burly biker had forced the needle into Diego’s skin over and over again. He could still hear Allison sob quietly and Klaus’ comforting whispers as he had held her then. Klaus had, much like Diego, always been looking out for his siblings, eager to provide comfort even when he was in pain himself. Back then, he had already been taller than most of his other siblings. Klaus had grown fast like a beanpole, but only upwards.

There was just the tiniest nod coming from Klaus after a long pause and only then Diego realized that he was still holding onto Klaus’ hand. His hands were cold as ice but Klaus’ hands had always been cold. He remembered that his room had always been extra warm, the heating turned up to the max because Klaus had always been freezing. And even then Klaus had always claimed that his room was like an igloo.

Diego rolled up his left sleeve and held his arm out to Klaus so that his brother would be able to see the tattoo on his arm now. »I’m Diego, Klaus.« He urged the other man calmly. »I’m your brother. Number Two. You remember me, don't you? We used to t-take baths together, p-play together. A-And w-we hid from Dad in the at-attic when he w-wanted t-to force us to t-train. You, me, and Benny.« At least in the beginning, Diego had been all too eager to hide away in some dark corner with Klaus and Ben.

»That's not possible.« Klaus’ words sounded hollow, his voice thin and barely above a whisper as he carefully brushed the tips of his fingers over the thin layer of skin that was stretching over Diego’s forearm. He could hardly feel the touch as Klaus carefully dragged his fingers over the tattoo as if to make sure it was real. The slight tingle Klaus’ fingers caused sent goosebumps down his spine, though.

»Twelve years have gone by since you went away, Klaus. We’ve all grown up.«

He felt his throat constrict around those words because it felt so surreal to say them. It was true though, wasn't it? They had left the house, one after the other, before they had even turned eighteen and they had grown up into dysfunctional adults with traumas and coping mechanisms and weird quirks. Separately. Alone. And now, coming back together for their father's funeral, they were mere strangers who so happened to have been born under the exact same circumstances.

They might as well have met for the very first time in their life on that day at the mansion.

»We’ve grown up and I missed you. I thought you were dead and I thought it was my fault for not protecting you.«

※※※※※※※

Twelve years. The weight of those words didn't quite sink in. But that was what the stranger told him, right? Twelve years had passed. And he had the tattoo. The same one Klaus had on his own arm. There was a voice in the back of his head warning him to not be so naive, to remember that crazy stalker guy from all those years ago. What if this man was just another one of those delusional stalkers? Someone who had grown up and read about the kids of the Umbrella Academy and wanted to be like them. Everyone could get a tattoo like this! And yet, as he looked the stranger in the eyes, he seemed so honest, almost desperate for Klaus to believe him.

It would explain why the person in the mirror this morning had looked nothing like him. He had grown up without even realizing it. Yeah … That sounded like him, didn't it? And still, despite this man’s honesty and the sadness in his brown eyes, despite the familiarity he felt when looking at this man, he couldn't wrap his brain around what he said even as they were walking back from the park through the nightly streets.

He wanted to go home. He wanted to go back to his room and curl up in his bed until the doctor would come again to poke needles into his arm. He felt foggy without his pills. He felt strange and fidgety. His flesh was on fire and ants were crawling under his skin. He could hear his teeth chattering but he was burning up from the inside. His knees had the consistency of jello and he wanted desperately to feel the gravel of the path that was running through the park like arteries under his feet, digging into the soles of his feet, biting his skin. He needed to feel connected to the ground. His clothes - No, not his clothes - were suffocating and tight and he wanted to get them off.

»You can do it.« Ben always seemed to be there. And how could this man be Diego when Ben was right here next to him? How could Klaus be all grown up when Ben was right here and when Ben was still the way he remembered him to be?

He dug his fingernails into his scalp at this thought. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could still see Ben’s lifeless corpse on the bed in the infirmary. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could still see Ben standing there in the corner of his bedroom torn to shreds by the monster that had been living in his chest and of which Ben had always been so terrified while growing up - the monster Ben had not been able to hide from.

But Ben was here as he opened his eyes again. He was right here next to him with his hands buried in his black leather jacket just like on the day he went to go on that mission with Luther. How could he be dead when he was here?

»You know that I am dead, Klaus.« Ben urged quietly but his expression was unreadable to Klaus. »And you need to trust Diego. I know you are in pain - it's the withdrawal from your medication. Those pills made you numb, Klaus. Those pills were designed to keep you submissive and docile, to control you. You don't need them. You are getting better now. Diego will make sure that you are getting better.«

Diego always made sure that he was getting better and that he was alright. Diego had always taken care of him, in a way. He remembered Diego bringing him soup when he had been sick. He remembered Diego patching him up when he had gotten hurt again during a mission or while playing with the others. Hadn’t it been Diego who had put a straw in his soup and shakes after Klaus had fallen down the stairs in Mom’s heels and broke his jaw so that he could eat? The others had made fun of him - except for Vanya, of course - but though Diego had made one or two quips on his expense, he had helped him. He had never told Diego that he had been dancing to a Britney Spears song on his walkman in Mom’s heels before he fell down the stairs. Maybe some secrets should not be revealed.

His knees were weak but he didn't stumble even as the boxing gym came back into sight. It took him a moment to realize that he was leaning on Diego - on the man that claimed to be his brother and yet was a complete stranger to him - quite heavily by now. Diego had always allowed him to lean on him for support. This was different, though. It didn't feel like coming home after a long exhausting day of training or from some horrible mission their father had sent them to. In fact, he didn't remember what it felt like to come home after a long exhausting day.

The world outside his tiny white room was scary, cold and intimidating even as he dove into the shadows of the boxing gym. The only light inside the gym as Diego locked the door with a heavy set of keys were the emergency lights over a few doors. The shadows on the way down to the boiler room were heavy and filled with ghosts and ghouls screaming at him, trying to grab him and pull him into their veil of inky darkness. However, oddly enough, they wouldn't come too close. Maybe they were afraid of Diego.

He remembered how the ghosts would leave him alone when he slept in Diego’s room or were close to him or Ben in any way. The monster in Ben’s chest had kept the ghosts at bay just the same as Diego. It had growled and moaned when they came too close. He remembered following Diego around like a little duckling. Odd … He felt like he had a deja vu of some sort.

Into the darkness of an endless maze of corridors, he followed Diego until they reached the boiler room. It felt like diving into a pond and Klaus was freezing. Diego unlocked the door to his apartment and suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Slowly, he put his left arm out to hold Klaus back gently before he pulled out one of the knives he had stuck to his body. After a small moment of calculation, the other man threw the knife through the crack in the door.

 _Diego_ , he thought. _It's Diego_. His Diego. All grown up. Nonetheless, this man, the stranger, was his Diego.

There was a yelp coming from inside the room a second later before Diego barged into the boiler room and switched on the light. Klaus barely had time to stumble after him, suddenly terrified of remaining in the darkness of the hall for too long by himself. There was a figure sitting in an armchair next to a dusty old stereo in the corner of the room. Klaus couldn't see the knife Diego had thrown but it clearly wasn’t sticking out of the figure in the school uniform.

»Glad to see you too, Diego.« The person huffed with that usual kind of hubris Klaus had been used to from Five before he vanished. How many times had his father tried forcing him to make contact with Five in the afterlife and how frustrated had the old man become when Klaus couldn't do it?

Now his brother sat in this armchair like on the day he vanished. He was still wearing the uniform and that smug little smirk on his face as Diego walked into the room. But if Diego was able to see Five then Five wasn't dead. And if Five wasn't dead and looking like that … who was the man calling himself Diego? How could Five look like Five when Diego looked all grown up?

None of this made any sense and his head was vibrating. It was going to explode, he could feel it already, that pressure from within his skull.

»What are you doing here?« Diego’s deep voice echoed through the room, resonating deep within Klaus’ body like someone had been struck a gong right next to his face.

»Ah, and as I expected you have found our brother. Of course, completely by chance as I assume?«

»Don't make me repeat my question.« Diego threatened the boy in the room as he sauntered down the metal stairs. Klaus followed slowly because following other people around was just what was expected of him, wasn't it? Nurse Parker always ordered him to follow her. He didn't want to get punished. »I don't have the patience right now.«

He was dizzy and the world around him started to become a lot blurrier and fuzzier around the edges. He wanted to lay down but there was Five sitting on that armchair like on the day he vanished! And Diego was talking to him as if he was really there! None of it made any sense. And there was Ben sitting in the corner and looking at him with concern in his eyes.

»Klaus, you need to sit down.« Ben urged him but didn't get up to actually pull him anywhere. _Because he can't_ , a voice in the back of his head reminded him quietly. There was static in his ears and a low beeping sound making him almost deaf to anything else. »You are going to pass out if you don't sit down now.«

»I feel funky.« Klaus heard himself mutter even though this voice that came out of his mouth still sounded very much alien to him. He saw how Diego turned around to look at him and saw how Five opened his mouth to say something but whatever it was he wanted to say, Klaus didn't hear it. His brother’s voice was suddenly deep and wonky and slow and before Klaus knew what was going on, his world turned upside down and then darkness was finally pulling him under the water.

_Through the water and the darkness, he could see specks of colors dance on the waves above his head. It was not much, barely the flickering and vibrating of the lights reflecting from a mirror ball and being broken by a kaleidoscope into a million different shades of the rainbow - yet enticing enough for Klaus to swim back to the surface._

_The rushing of the blood in his ears was replaced by the music humming in his head, vibrating in his entire body. A funky little song. Klaus thought he knew it. Hadn't he danced to this song with his siblings when he had been but a child during Luther’s randomly initiated dance parties whenever the old man hadn't been home?_

_Tiffany’s ‘I think we’re alone now’ was blaring out of the speakers and though he felt the urge to dance and lose himself in the moment entirely, there was something else more important, something more enticing._

_Around him, the lunatics of the asylum danced their pain away and wouldn't even know what had happened come the next morning when they would get pumped full with drugs again to make them docile and numb and stupid. As long as he behaved, Klaus figured, they would allow him to actually feel the world around him and to actually form half-way coherent thoughts during the daytime. However, he had the feeling that sneaking away from the dance party into an alcove with Dave was not considered good behavior._

_He had only eyes for Dave though as the other man leaned with his back against the wall, his eyes impossibly blue and piercing right through the walls Klaus had so carefully erected around his very soul over the course of twenty years._

_Dave’s hand was warm and soft as he gently reached out to Klaus and put his fingers to his cheek to turn his face. He was alive and breathing and oh so beautiful as he leaned in for the kiss and Klaus, though he knew that it was wrong, though he knew that they would get punished for this, couldn't help but follow Dave’s lead completely. There was no chance of escaping this situation, no way out. Dave was pulling him in like a magnet._

_Yes, he was that tiny ugly squid-magnet he had once found and bought in a dollar store and given to Diego as a gift. Diego had bitched about it, as was his default reaction, and yet he had stuck it to the fridge in the kitchen nonetheless and hadn't allowed anyone to throw it away. It had been_ Diego’s _ugly little squid magnet._

_Dave’s lips were soft against his, too much to resist, too little to keep him going for the next few days without being able to feel this again. It wasn’t his first kiss - far from it - and yet, never had anyone touched Klaus as Dave did now. His hands were calloused from the war and from disassembling and reassembling his guns, the stubbles around his jaw scratchy against Klaus’ chin. He smelled like soap and something else that Klaus couldn't put his finger on. But his touch … Oh, his touch._

_He touched Klaus as if he was the most fragile little thing he had ever seen. A precious china teacup, too delicate to put any pressure or force on without risking to break it._

_Klaus was drowning in the moment, drowning in the feeling of Dave’s mouth against his, drowning in the sound of Dave’s heartbeat drumming in unison with his own. The colorful lights started to fade away and allowed the shadows to creep in on them and to hide what they were doing from the prying eyes of the nurses. And while Dave’s heartbeat in his ears only became louder, the music and that old song, started to fade out slowly until it was only the ghostly husk of a memory echoing through his mind. An echo - a memory - of long forgotten times._

»He’s burning up.« The voice sounded vaguely familiar but it seemed a lifetime ago that he last heard it.

»No shit, Sherlock!« Another voice, deeper than the first, more gruff and angry, answered. He could feel something cold on his face. The featherlight brush of a bird’s feather dusting over his nose and cheeks. »We would be much quicker if you would have your powers under better control and could zap us there!«

»We would have been much quicker if you would invest in a car that can go faster than a grandma with a walking frame!« There was the sound of a door being opened and the cold feeling on his face vanished all at once. »And maybe you should have considered not running around in the middle of the night in February with him!«

»Stop bitching and go call for Mom!« The man with the deep voice growled. »And don't you dare alarm Luther or Allison!«

»Oh, good that you say that, I wanted to pull Luther out of his bed for that!« There was another sound, a door falling shut, a weird little poofing sound, heavy steps hurrying through a hollow sounding room. His body was vibrating from head to toe. He couldn't control his head as it lolled against something firm and warm. He couldn't even open his eyes and the moment he tried to, the darkness was back to attack him and drag him under the surface again.

Back to Dave, perhaps.

 

**-End of Chapter 7-**


	8. Chapter 8

The best thing about the mansion was Mom. It had always been like this. Diego had never cared much for the wealth his father liked to display, the luxury or the old paintings hanging in the picture gallery where Mom had her refuge. He had never been a very materialistic kind of guy as was evident by his very humble abode. Perhaps because he had always known that, to his father, he was just another commodity, just another tool, just another piece of fine art that belonged to him, a rare specimen in his zoo. Everything inside this house, the paintings, the expensive furniture, and all that other unnecessary crap had never been more than just the decoration of his cage in Sir Reginald Hargreeves’ zoo.

Mom, however, was different. He was aware that she was just a machine, just a robot programmed to take care of them as a mother would. He was deadly aware that her programming might be changed just as easily or her memory erased until she wouldn't recognize Diego anymore and yet he had assigned traits to her, started to idealize her and love her. And now as an adult, he was still convinced that she too loved him.

Coming home, to Diego, didn't mean coming back to the academy but coming back to Mom.

As Five reappeared with Mom at his side after Diego had reached the infirmary, the robot let out an audible gasp at the sight before her. She had this confused and startled little look on her face that made Diego truly feel uneasy right away. Reginald had done an exceptional job at altering her memories of the night Klaus had allegedly died all those years ago. Maybe calling her for help had been a mistake, he wondered briefly as he put Klaus down on the bed in the middle of the room. At least they had not yet alarmed Pogo of the goings-on in the infirmary and Diego much rather kept it this way. As if reading his mind, Five quickly closed the door securely.

It didn't take long for Mom to get over her initial surprise of seeing her dead son alive on that bed before her programming kicked in and made her quickly put on her white apron that hung next to the door before she inched closer.

»What happened to your brother, Diego, Dear?« She addressed him with a concerned tilt of her head before she put her hand on Klaus’ forehead gingerly. »He has a fever.« She concluded. Well, there was always a plus to having a robot as a mother.

»I … I don't know.« Diego stammered before brushing a hand through his hair. »I think he’s going through withdrawal from his medication he got in the asylum.«

»What medication?« Mom asked curiously before she grabbed her tools to check on Klaus thoroughly, her brows knitted together in worry. For just a moment, as Diego watched her feeling his brother’s pulse and listening to his heartbeat and his breathing through the stethoscope, he felt like he had traveled back in time. Suddenly, he was twelve again and his brother Klaus had passed out after catching an especially mean cold and after their father had still forced him to go through with his training.

»I don't know.« Diego sighed. »It's not like I was able to steal his file. All I know is that he was pumped full of drugs when I got him out.«

»Which there was probably a good reason for, Diego.« Five remarked coldly from his spot at the door. Five might be a little asshole, which wasn’t that new anyway, but he wouldn't let their other siblings walk in on them in a situation like this either. Five had always been one of the more rational of his siblings.

Still, Diego only shot him a glance that spoke clearly of the line Five should better not dare to cross now. »You weren't there.« Was all he had to say to his brother. He felt like he was endlessly repeating himself over and over again. »You haven't seen him there.«

Was this guilt flickering briefly over his brother’s face? It was hard to tell and not important anyway to Diego. Not now, at least. He helped Mom checking on Klaus and getting painkillers into him. »We need to pull out the fever.« Mom said with a soft sigh as she was getting ready to fill up a bowl with cold water. Diego, however, stopped her.

»Thanks, Mom« She met his words with that sunny smile of hers that never failed to fill his chest with warmth. »I think I got it from here.«

For a second, he wondered if she would try to argue with him about that, but then she brushed her fingers over his cheek instead. »You know how this works, right?«

»Yes, Mom.« He nodded quietly and with a smile of his own creeping up on him. »Calves, not forehead.«

»Right.« She smiled softly and put the bowl into his hands instead. »Of course, you know. You always took such good care of your siblings.« With those words, she got rid of her apron and, after Five stepped away from the door, floundered out as if nothing had happened.

»Why are you sending her away?« Five asked now suddenly very curious and interested in Diego’s frame of mind as it seemed. Diego, however, gave the bowl with the cold water in Five’s hands next after dumping a few towels into the bowl to let them soak.

»Remember that room in the attic where Luther and Allison used to hang out when we were thirteen? The greenhouse?« Five nodded and raised a brow. »We cannot keep Klaus here on a silver platter for the others to stumble upon. We have to hide him somewhere and if he would wake up in his room and make any kind of noise, the others might find him there.«

»So you want to hide him in the attic?«

»Luther once dragged a mattress up there when we were sixteen.« As Five’s eyes widened, Diego cut him off right away. »Don't look at me like that! I don't wanna know what he did up there with a mattress but now it comes as an advantage.«

Five was smart and he knew exactly what Diego meant, so he nodded. »I’m getting ice as well. And blankets.« He replied and with a _poof_ , he was gone again. Diego now had the much more difficult task of delivering Klaus to that secret-not-so-secret romantic hide-out of two of his siblings. Jesus Christ, how the mighty had fallen.

With a sigh, he collected Klaus from the bed and allowed his head to loll against his shoulder again. Klaus barely weighed anything so carrying him around was hardly a chore for someone as sturdy as Diego. They would change that in time. And if it was the last thing he would do in his life, he would get a bit more meat on those bones.

He was silent as a cat that was dragging a mouse between its fangs as he was carrying Klaus through the house and up to the attic, praying to all the deities he knew of that Klaus would not suddenly wake up and start screaming bloody murder. He didn't. And before long, Diego had made it to the attic where Five had already found the mattress that was still there and made it into a proper bed.

There were still a few fairy lights hanging on the walls and something that looked like a makeshift tent. The reason for the mattress became apparent, however, as Diego glanced at the ceiling. The roof. He had forgotten about that glass roof up here that allowed the most beautiful look at the stars. Yes, stargazing was much more like Luther than getting freaky with Allison up here. He was a big softie, after all.

Five helped him to make it comfortable for Klaus after Diego put him down on the mattress. »What did you mean with ‘Calves not forehead’?« Five then inquired with curiosity edged into his features.

»Most people put a wet cloth on the forehead of someone with a fever.« Diego muttered as he pulled off the thick socks he had given Klaus at his apartment. His feet were cold. »But if you want to pull out the fever, you wanna wrap the calves. Apparently, it's some household remedy.«

»Does it work?«

»It worked just fine on me and Klaus when we were younger.« Diego huffed. »On all of us, I guess. Though Klaus was mostly the one getting sick.«

»He was never wearing shoes.« Five shrugged as he started to help Diego push up the legs of the sweatpants their brother wore so that they got access to his calves. »No wonder he was always getting sick.«

Diego huffed in amusement. »You still remember that?«

»Of course.« Five rolled his eyes. »It was annoying. With Klaus, it was always like … You either didn't hear him coming like a ghost because he was wearing those ridiculous plush socks he stole from Allison and Vanya or your heard him pitter patter on naked feet. Dad hated it.«

»Dad hated everything we did.« Diego smirked as he started to wrap Klaus’ left leg tightly but careful not to wrap it too tightly. They didn't want to cut off circulation, after all. »We never could do anything right in his eyes.«

»He was not always wrong with critiquing us, though.« Five muttered. »He told me not to jump through time and I did it anyway. Worst mistake of my life.« They were silent for a moment as they worked on their brother before Five looked at him again. »Where did you get that scar from?«

Diego impulsively reached up to touch the thick scar tissue over his right ear. »Oh, that.« He grinned. »Well, Dad told me not to let Klaus practice with my knives.«

»See? Told you Dad was not always wrong.«

»I guess not.« Diego laughed quietly. »He almost took my eye.« He found himself shaking his head at the memory. »Maybe I shouldn't have allowed him to try to go all Wilhelm Tell on me, huh? Anyway, I think Klaus was more horrified than I was. He did all my chores for two months and never dared to touch my knives again.«

»Who would have thought Klaus knew what remorse was.« Five sighed. »I remember him as being loud and inconsiderate most of the time.«

»Oh, don't worry, he got worse after you vanished.« Diego shrugged.

»When did that start?« Five asked and as Diego looked at him in confusion, he added: »The drugs. I mean … The _hard_ drugs. I know he used to smoke weed before I left and that he sometimes would raid Dad’s liquor cabinet at night but … what happened?«

»I don't know.« It wasn't even a lie. »Dad was pretty hard on him after you left. I think he tried to force him to make contact with you. After all, we all thought you were dead, right? But Klaus said that he couldn't find you and Dad got mad and punished him for the most ridiculous things. I remember Dad starting to take Klaus out of the house more and more often at that point at night and how he would return without him. I hate to admit it but back then … I wanted to please. I didn't ask. The hard drugs started shortly after that. And Dad got only angrier because Klaus numbed his powers with those drugs.«

»And then Ben happened.« Five concluded and Diego stopped in his tracks for a second.

»Yeah … And then Ben happened. That's when we lost Klaus completely. There was no way back after what he had to have seen that day. I mean … Ben’s ghost and all that shit. Before that he only took pills - Molly and stuff like this, sometimes coke. We all put a blind eye to it. But after that, he started with heroin.«

»Well, then the asylum had one good thing, right? He’s twelve years clean from that crap now.«

»If you put it that way…«

This whole situation was so surreal. Here he was now, sitting in Luther and Allison's secret hideout, hiding their own brother from the rest of their siblings, allowing themselves to wallow in memories.

»Do you think Luther and Allison really used that mattress?« Five then asked.

»Oh, God no.« Diego huffed. »I bet ya he’s still a virgin.«  And that was something he didn't want to think about either right now. »So why were you at my flat anyway?«

»You mean the boiler room at that gym?«

»Yes.« He chuckled.

»Well, I went out to have a nice cup of coffee, then stuff happened and I had to find a place to regroup. Coming back here right away seemed too risky at first. And since Vanya told me where to find you...«

»Stuff happened, huh.« Diego muttered. »What was stuff?«

»You know how it sometimes goes.« Five shrugged. »Sometimes you sit peacefully at a donut shop and try to enjoy a nice cup of coffee and then a group of armed assholes storm in because they want to kill you.«

»Sounds like a normal Saturday night to me.« Diego rolled his eyes. »Okay I’m not gonna ask why those people wanted to kill you. I take it you made sure they were no longer a threat to you, right?«

»You know me.«

Sometimes he wondered if that was a good thing. Everything inside of him wanted to ask Five just why someone would want to kill a thirteen-year-old boy in a school uniform but then there was another part of him that rather didn't want to know.

»It's a long story.« Five shrugged. »And right now we have more important stuff to do: Like take care of our brother here, for example. You are aware that we can't hide him from the others forever, right?«

»Sure.« Diego replied after a moment of silence. He knew that what he was doing was stupid and clueless. Well, there was a reason why Luther was Number One, right? He saw himself as less of a leader and more like some sort of a pirate. »But at least for a couple more days. Until the heat dies down. Though I don't believe that will happen all too soon.«

»Unlikely, I agree with you on that. The police are looking for him and that asylum seems oddly eager to get him back - which in and of itself makes me a bit curious about that place.«

»Not to mention that they probably know that I took him. I mean, I was the only person to visit him except for dad and the first person in ten years. I guess putting two and two together after that won’t be such a troublesome thing for those people. So, I better lay low too, I guess. It's only a matter of time until Patch arrives with a search warrant at the gym, I would assume.«

»The police was already here.« Five replied. »Luther allowed them to search the house. You should be safe here for a while.«  

»So we should try to find a way to stop people from looking for Klaus then.« Which was easier said than done, obviously. Not that Diego had much time to really think about how they were going to do that. It didn't matter so much to him as to get Klaus back on track. He had the feeling that Klaus would have a lot to say about this clinic when he would be himself again.

※※※※※※※

_The gentle caress of calloused hands against his cheeks was the first thing he felt. Fingers brushing over skin, lips gently moving against his with a level of uncertainty and inexperience that Klaus had only rarely experienced in his life. Dave, he thought. No, that didn't seem right at all. Not Dave. It was not the smell of soap and mint that was lingering in his nose. It was leather and something sharp, almost a little like whiskey burning on his tongue when he was much younger and not used to the taste. What a weird thought to have._

_There was hesitation in this kiss, innocence, almost, and something deeply familiar that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He felt protected and save under the touch of another boy with whom he didn't just share the same age or birthday. They were outcasts in a wasteland of broken dreams and hopes and he had never felt safer anywhere else than in the arms of his brother._

_That didn't seem right. Something was wrong about that dream or that memory. Still, he could clearly see it all in front of him. Diego’s face, just as he remembered it with the first awkward stubbles around his firm jaw and those dark eyes Klaus had always been drawn to. Maybe lying behind the bar in the living room wasn't the best place to exchange kisses in a drunken fit but it was what it was and Diego was so much more gentle than anyone he had ever kissed before. There was no rough pulling at his hair, no bruising grip around his jaw to pry it open. Diego touched him as if he saw him for the first time, as if he had never touched anything as delicate ever before and was afraid to break him._

_Even at the tender age of seventeen, Diego was much stronger than Klaus and it would only need a flick of his wrist to break his neck._

But the bubble burst and he was alone. As he opened his eyes he could no longer see Diego’s face hovering above him. No longer feel the press of his lips against his own. Around him, there was only darkness and above him a clear starry sky. As he lay there on his back in the dark, he felt like reaching out to the stars and touching them. He felt like he could do it if he would just try hard enough. The crescent moon seemed so near as it shone down on him. For a moment, just looking at the stars, he felt calm and relaxed. There was a sense of serenity washing over him that he hadn't known in a very long time - perhaps his entire life. For just this instant, he couldn't hear any ghosts screaming his name or pleading him to help them and no doctors yelling orders at him either. There was no electricity shooting through his body, just quiet and peace.

Perhaps he was dead.

He was probably dead.

What a comforting little thought. Being dead was certainly a lot nicer and more relaxed than being alive. Then again, the ghosts that were usually screaming at him did not seem very relaxed. Well, unfinished business and all that. Klaus had none of that. His business might not be finished but … then again what business was there left for him to take care of anyway?

Consciousness was an odd thing, to Klaus. Always had been. Sometimes it just crept up on him without any kind of warning until he would find himself very much awake and unpleasantly surprised by that very fact, sometimes it startled him completely out of his mind and sometimes it came in waves to him.

In fact, most of the time, Klaus couldn't even be certain if he was conscious or not. _The Drugs_ , he remembered a voice saying every now and then. He didn't quite understand what that disembodied voice was going on about when it would talk to him in the past, but it seemed quite adamant most of the time. _The drugs_ , it had repeated over and over on numerous occasions. The truth was, Klaus was not even certain if he was conscious or awake right at this moment. No white walls, no endless planes of snow. He remembered barely the stranger who called himself Diego talking to him. But how was he here now? And where was _here_ , to begin with?

He felt the desire to get up and walk around in the darkness around him but he was afraid that he would attract the attention of the phantoms lingering undoubtedly in the shadows surrounding him. No, he rather watched the stars above his head until the screams would rip through his skull once more.

_»Number Four!« Consciousness sometimes came in waves, crashing at the shoreline of his mind, sometimes gently, sometimes violently._

_»Number Two!« The voice of their father was never gentle. Not once had he shown affection or tenderness towards his seven children. Consciousness came crashing down on him like a thunderstorm this time around. It was loud and violent, startling and, quite frankly, terrifying._

_»What in God’s name are you doing?« They had been caught red-handed. There was no way around it, no way of defending themselves now. As their father loomed over them and stared down at them out of narrowed eyes from behind bushy eyebrow with the dim light of the room reflecting from his monocle, Diego and Klaus were still intertwined with each other._

_It took Diego's good reflexes to actually made them break away from each other. And as they did, they did so with a sudden jolt of electricity shooting right through Klaus’ body. »Have you lost your mind? This behavior is completely unacceptable and shameful! You are_ brothers _!« His voice was loud but he kept it steady in a way that was completely unique to this man. He would scream at his children in a way that would make sure no one but the recipients of his tirade would hear it._

 _»I am deeply disappointed by_ your _behavior especially, Number Two! I expected more from you than getting drunk and fooling around with your own brother! To your room! I don't wish to see one of you again until breakfast!«_

_Their father left as suddenly as he came. Left them with the shame his attack on his sons had on them now that they were left behind like that. The comfort they had felt just seconds before in each other's embrace, was now replaced by suffocating awkwardness and scandal. He had been lost in Diego’s arms, lost in his smell and the touch of his lips, lost in the dark pools of his eyes and nothing except their closeness had mattered to him in the least. And now his brother wouldn't look at him anymore. Suddenly, as Klaus reached out to Diego once more, his brother shrunk away from him as if burned before he quickly got to his feet and rushed away._

_He wanted to call out to Diego and make him stop, make him come back to him at once but his throat was tied shut. He couldn't speak. He couldn't yell. He couldn't even breathe. The dead were clawing at his skin, relentless as ever now that Diego had left him behind in the cold desert of their home. Nothing was keeping the ghosts from coming after him anymore. And this time, Klaus embraced it as they put their hands over his face and pulled him underwater._

※※※※※※※

Diego hated being in this house. He had always hated it. He hated those thick walls, hated the heavy furniture, hated the paintings littering the walls, hated the creaking and the noises the house made when it turned over in its sleep. After Five and he had dealt with Klaus, Diego had decided to keep watch over his brother. He had curled up in the tent Allison and Luther had once set up in this room. It seemed a lifetime ago. Hell, they had all been so young once upon a time. So young and naive and full of hope. He remembered a time when they all had looked at the world full of wonder, starry-eyed and full of dreams of their future.

He had dreamed of becoming a cop, that he would help innocent people and that he would find his place in the world out there. That never happened. He had thought, once upon a time, that one day he would receive an invitation for the wedding of Allison and Luther, that his siblings would end up happy together and start a family of their own.

Dad had never seemed to disapprove of the possibility. Deep down inside, Diego knew exactly why too. A new Adam and Eve. A new generation of superheroes perhaps. And, now that he lay in the darkness of the attic that once had been used as a greenhouse, he remembered a time when he had almost been sure he might find happiness like theirs as well in this house. But that was a long time ago and it had been foolish and dumb and he should not waste another thought about it.

And yet, there had been nights when he had still felt Klaus’ lips on his own. There had been nights when he had been back behind that bar, huddled together with his brother, laughing giddily in their drunken state, making jokes and egging each other on like they always did. And then he was there again, with Klaus daring him to kiss him, and he was grabbing him by the back of his neck again, weaving his fingers through his curls, Klaus’ breath ghosting over his face.

Hell, he had done his damnedest for most of his life to forget that night behind the bar. And when their father had told them about Klaus’ suicide he had been heartbroken, sure that his behavior had been the last nail in the coffin.

And now Klaus was alive again and even remembering that fateful night seemed so wrong of him. Yet, he couldn't quite shake it off. Not here in this house, lying in Luther and Allison’s secret hideout.

He didn't know when he had fallen asleep at last but when he woke up, the sun was already creeping up the horizon and tinting the world in magenta and orange through the glass roof of the former greenhouse in the attic of his childhood home. Klaus was still asleep on his makeshift bed and as Diego walked over to him to feel his forehead, he noted with satisfaction that the fever had gone down a bit by now. He was getting better but the road to recovery was slow and would be painful for them both. He wouldn't be able to hide his brother away in this room forever. Sooner or later their siblings would find them. He knew that and he also knew that he would have to confront the situation sooner or later. Sooner better than later actually.

A glance at his wristwatch told him that it was only five AM. Early enough to risk leaving the room and going downstairs into the kitchen. Klaus needed food and water and Diego did as well. Klaus was still breathing deeply and would probably stay asleep for a little while longer. So, Diego made quick work as he left the attic room and climbed down the stairs. He knew the house like the back of his hand and Diego had always been sneaky.

Getting from the attic to the kitchen was easy enough for him without getting detected. He could only assume that most of his siblings were still fast asleep. Maybe except for Luther. Luther, much like Diego, had always been an early riser. No wonder, really. They had been pretty much programmed to rise early and do their workout routine before breakfast, to always be on top of their game.

The kitchen was still empty this early in the day and so Diego took his chances to grab two large bottles of water from the fridge and whatever he could find to eat. There wasn’t enough time for Diego to quickly cook up something to eat now - not with the risk of Luther running in on him anytime now. However, as if it was his brother’s other superpower, as Diego turned around, Luther stood in the doorframe looking ready to rip his head off cleanly.

»Good Morning, Luther.« Diego tried to sound as inconspicuous as possible but he already knew that he had fucked up. He should have checked on his siblings first. Then again, Luther looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Come to think about it, Diego had no idea how the big guy might have reacted to the news of Klaus’ escape from the asylum. Not that Diego would assume that his brother would actually have been concerned for their wayward brother. And yet, Luther wasn't made of stone either. Despite their differences and their troubles with each other, he knew that in this big hunk of a man a boy was still buried.

His brother, although the spitting image of their father in terms of his behavior, was not all bad and Diego knew this. Acting as if he didn't, however, was more fun.

»Diego.« Luther replied gruffly. He sounded as if he had just gotten out of bed but the bags under his eyes indicated that this couldn't be any further from the truth. had he been out and about searching for Klaus, perhaps? Diego couldn't bring himself to feel bad for his brother though. Not after the horrible things Luther had said after they had first learned the truth about Klaus. »I didn't expect you to be here.«

»Well, last time I checked, this was my home as well as yours.«

»So where are you going with all this stuff, huh? No time going grocery shopping between your vigilante work, your fights and mopping the floors of that gym?« So he had talked to Al, huh. Or had he talked to Vanya? Al had his apartment right above the gym so if Luther had gone to the gym last night or early today after Diego had already vacated the place with Klaus, he might have had a run in with the owner of the gym. »Your boss says that your fired, by the way. Said he doesn't want to get involved in your shady bullshit.«

»What shady bullshit?«

»That's exactly what I asked him too, you know?« Luther replied with a hint of sarcasm that just wouldn't fit with him. »You know what he told me?« He had a hunch. »He told me that he saw you and a kid leaving his gym last night around midnight and that you were carrying another person. Said, he doesn't wish to know what you were doing with that kid or with that possibly dead guy you were carrying around like that in the middle of the night to your car. Said, you were welcome to get your stuff.

So imagine my bewilderment when I heard that story, Diego. I asked myself, what kid was with Diego and what other guy would my brother carry around in the middle of the night after avoiding the rest of us like the plague for several days after he threw a tantrum about our dear brother Klaus and after Vanya came to you to tell you about that same brother escaping from the insane asylum he had been locked up in.«

»Valid questions.« Diego shrugged as he carefully put down the bread he had stolen from the cupboard and lay it on the counter like it was a deadly weapon. He was instinctively bracing for another fistfight with Luther even though his brother didn't step any closer and seemed relatively calm despite the fact that he was practically vibrating on the spot in anger.

»Where is he, Diego?«

»Who?«

»Klaus.«

»How would I know if the police or you guys can't find him!«

»Diego« Of course, wherever Luther went, Allison wasn't far off. And of course, she would have his back for certain. »Cut the crap. We know you have broken Klaus out of the asylum and we know that you are hiding him. Now we need to know _where_ you are hiding him.«

Allison looked and sound just as tired and exasperated as Luther as she came into sight behind him next. Almost he would have expected Vanya to appear behind them but she didn't. Of course not. His sister knew that Klaus was safe with Diego so why would she bother to put her energy into searching for him when she had known exactly where to find him?

»What's going on here?« In a flash, Five appeared on the kitchen table, his legs dangling off the edge playfully. He was still in his pajamas. »A little early for breakfast isn't it?«

»You know exactly what's going on, Five!« Luther huffed and then gestured wildly towards Diego. »I should have known you would help him with this madness!«

»What madness?«

»Diego has Klaus and he doesn't want to tell us where he has hidden him!« Allison shot back in a groan, clearly annoyed with her brothers and regretting the decision of coming back to the house in the first place.

»And what would you do with him if I told you where he is? Send him back to the asylum so that they can continue to torture him?«

»No one was torturing him, Diego.« Luther groaned. »They were helping him!«

»You weren't there! You haven't seen him!«

»Stop it, guys!« Allison sighed. »We can discuss this later. First, show us where he is and then we can decide what to do.«

»We are not sending him back.« Diego said as calmly as he could but the growl in his voice should convey his message just fine. He would grab Klaus and run if his siblings would even dare to try and call the police.

»He’s in the attic.« Five had always been a master in ignoring Diego’s glares so he didn't even waste the energy on the boy. There was no sense in glaring at him now.

Before long, the group was walking up the stairs to the attic room where Diego had left his brother. If his siblings recognized the place, they didn't let it show too much. However, as they walked into the room, there was no Klaus left for them to find anymore. Just the mattress and the mound of blankets Klaus had been buried under.

»Diego.« Luther’s voice was even deeper than normal as he slowly said his name. » _Where_ is Klaus?«

 

**-End of Chapter 8-**


	9. Chapter 9

Home. He was home again. What an odd little thought to have. What a miracle. What a surprise. What a weird little … nightmare.

He was walking the endless maze of corridors of the academy and everything looked exactly like the last time he had walked these corridors. Then again, when was the last time he had done this? Hadn't it been just yesterday? Or … the day before that? Maybe a week ago. He couldn't remember. It seemed a whole lifetime ago and yet, nothing had changed. The paintings still hung from the walls in their heavy frames, the hardwood floors were still polished and the curtains in front of the windows still pristine.

There was still the same smell of old books and heavy dust lingering in the air, perhaps a hint of Allison’s favorite perfume and the shampoo Vanya would use. Green Apples, right? He almost thought that he heard voices from the kitchen and was tempted to go there. In the end, he was being dragged down another hallway, pulled by some kind of magnetic force. The floor changed from hardwood floor to white tiles with black accents here and there. The corridor was almost daunting as he entered it. There was no window lighting the way, only a couple of Tiffany lamps on the walls. Dark wooden doors were sensibly shut to his left and right, hiding a set of different bedrooms adamantly to the rest of the world.

He didn't think as he was moving forward. His body, though sluggish and weak, moved all on its own, drawn to a certain door. He was completely out of control over his own body. He was but a ghost roaming these halls. No one could see him. No one could hear him. He was not even sure if he could phase through that door at the end of the hallway or if he would be stopped by it. He could hear the ghost of Allison's little giggling from behind her door, could hear Luther playing one of his favorite songs of the late nineties again and again on repeat. He could hear Vanya playing the violin and the strange little sounds coming from Diego’s room when he would play darts against himself.

Almost he was sure that their doors would open any second now and reveal all of his siblings dressed in their pristine uniforms and they would ask him why he was still in his pajamas. They would step into the hallway to get ready for breakfast before the bell would ring and they wouldn't see him. He could stay in the middle of the corridor, screaming his lungs out and yet they wouldn't see him.

They never had. Never listened to him, never heard him, never believed him. Perhaps that was unfair. Perhaps they had decided it would be easier not to believe him because otherwise, that would mean that all their nightmares were true. Not believing him had been easier. He couldn't blame them. Not when there was the ghost of a polish woman wailing in the corner of the hallway.

As he reached the door at the end of the narrow corridor, his fingers curled around the cold brass of the doorknob before turning it on instinct. Half he had expected to find it locked but why would anyone lock this door? He was dead. He was gone. He was but a ghost roaming these halls. There would be no point in locking his door, no point in locking him in his room or the mausoleum.

His room looked like it had the last time he had seen it. But when was this? He couldn't remember. Maybe he had never left. Yes, hadn't he died here? He remembered dying here. Not in this room, though. Somewhere else. But he remembered dying in this house. He had drowned. Right? He remembered lying in the bathtub and he remembered slipping under the water. He remembered the peace and quiet of drowning. He had died in this house and it had been beautiful.

What had happened in this room? He was desperate to know. How much time had passed since he last came here?

Or … Was he still in the tub? If he would turn back and walk into the bathroom … Would he find himself lying in the bathtub? He didn't want to turn back and find his own dead body. Soon a door in the hallway would open, one of his siblings would shuffle into the bathroom and let out a blood-curdling scream like he had when he had seen Ben’s corpse for the first time with the giant hole in his chest. He moved over to his bed, sat down on the edge and waited. He waited for the scream to come. He waited for someone to find his body as he sat there and looked at the walls of his room.

He didn't quite feel as if he was home. He missed the white tundra that he had called home. And yet, he wasn't even quite sure if that had been real at all. It probably hadn't been real. Still, as he laid back on the bed slowly and stared at the white ceiling. It was only a matter of seconds now. Soon his family would realize that he was dead. Almost he felt a bit sad for them. He felt sad for Diego. Precious Diego who had always been too soft and too kind for his own good. He could almost see the little white room again, that desert of snow he had been lost in for an eternity and the longer he stared at the white painted ceiling, the stronger the image became.

※※※※※※※

Klaus was no longer in his makeshift bed. It was just this realization that sent Diego into a blind panic right away. He had been gone for no longer than ten minutes and Klaus had just vanished! How was this even possible?

»Where is he, Diego?« Luther’s voice was dark and serious, angry even as if Diego was actively fucking with his siblings, his eyes a dark glare that he directed at Number Two in a way that would have made Diego expect Luther to tackle him a few years ago. Number One was buzzing with nervous energy.

»I left him here ten minutes ago!«

»But he isn’t here!« Luther almost exploded and he might have very well strangled him had it not been for Allison putting a comforting hand on his biceps and getting between the two brothers. » _Where_ is he, Diego?«

Wouldn't they both be too busy screaming at each other and flaring up in violent anger, perhaps Diego would have actually been able to recognize the alarm and fear in Luther’s voice. His brother was perhaps just as deeply worried about their missing brother as he was - although their reasons for this might differ quite a lot, actually. Luther, after all, saw a possible threat in their thin, weak brother while Diego saw just sat: their thin weak brother who was in desperate need of help. _His_ help. What if he had woken up, gotten scared by his surroundings and fled? What if he had hurt himself already? What if they would find him in the yard, lying on the ground with his skull cracked open after he had jumped out of a window?

»That's useless.« Five frowned and put a stop to their quarrel. »We will just have to go look for him. How far could he have gone in ten minutes anyway?«

»He probably went to his room.« Allison offered in breaking up her brothers’ little argument. It was odd just how quickly they had all fallen back into old habits with each other. It had only taken them a few days for Luther and Diego to be at each other’s throats at all times again and again and barely a few minutes to contemplate murder. »Lets just go to his room and look for him there.«

And, of course, she was right. It was all too probable that Klaus went to his room, to the one familiar place in this house, and so it was Diego who led the charge even though Luther seemed adamant to be the first to get there. Like in the old times, Diego and Luther were always scrambling to get ahead on their way through the narrow corridors of the mansion. Only on the last bit of the way, Luther managed to get ahead of Diego and thanks to his bulky mass, there was really not much Diego could do to squeeze through Klaus’ door first. Luther was just such an insufferable prick sometimes.

He seemed not willing to even think about what effect he could have on their brother when he would saw Luther after all those years and after that drastic change, Luther had gone through. If Klaus wouldn't recognize Luther the same he hadn't recognized Diego, he would probably freak out completely when this giant of a man would barge in on him.

There was none of this, however, as they reached the room and found Klaus lying on his old bed. He was curled up on his side, his eyes closed and Diego couldn't deny the pang in his heart he felt at this sight before him. How often had he come to this room and opened the door, hoping he would find Klaus lying on his bed like this? And how often had he been disappointed and heart broken to be reminded of his absence when he didn't find him here? Even his absence had been loud in the academy, echoing off the high walls and reminding everyone that someone was missing.

His siblings were oddly silent as they stood in Klaus room now while Diego squeezed past them to check on their brother. Looking back at Luther and Allison now, still rooted to the ground by the door, they looked as if they were seeing a ghost, something that could impossibly be real now. Diego knew exactly what they felt. He had experienced it himself not too long ago, after all. At least they got the benefit of seeing Klaus in his own bed, shaven and with his hair cut and not in this white patient uniform from the asylum. He looked almost normal like this.

Gently, he put his hand to Klaus’ forehead to check on his temperature again. »His fever has gone down.« He murmured more to himself then to the rest of his siblings. »But not completely. He needs rest.«  

»I would suggest breakfast then.« Five huffed seemingly bored by the latest developments. He had already changed into his uniform again. Diego hadn't noticed how he had left them and came back. Well, perhaps one might say that his mind was a little occupied with other things at the moment. »We should let him sleep in peace and discuss the situation.«

To his general surprise, Allison slowly stepped closer towards the bed and extended one hand towards Klaus with as much uncertainty as if she was about to touch a frightened animal or something very dangerous that could bite her hand right off. He wanted to snap at her or swat her hand away but then he allowed her to actually brush her fingers through Klaus’ dark curls like she used to do when they had been much younger.

»It's really him.« She whispered before looking up at Diego out of wide brown eyes. He could see the unmistakable gleam of moisture in them. »It's him, isn't it?«

»Five is right.« Diego said instead. He felt his stomach clench the way she looked at Klaus or how Luther looked at Klaus. Somehow he didn't want that. He didn't want them to look at him or try to involve themselves with the situation. »We should let him sleep.«

»And leave him alone?« Allison chimed up again. Luther, on the other hand, still seemed frozen on the spot, unable to even form a coherent thought.

»He’s not going to go anywhere.« Diego promised.

»Of course, not.« Allison sighed. »But he could need our help. We should take him downstairs, to the living room. We would hear him if he needs us.« He wanted to argue that she hadn't cared until now if their brother needed them but instead, he nodded. Of course, he would feel better too to have him close by as well.

»I’ll meet you in the kitchen.« Diego huffed and although, for just a second, he thought that Luther would maybe lay claim to carry Klaus downstairs, his brother instead quite quickly, for such a big person, whirled around and left, followed by Allison and then Five zapping out of the room. »You scared me.« Diego mumbled quietly as he brushed a few curls out of Klaus’ forehead as it was only them left in the room. He didn't startle or wake up as Diego carefully scooped him up and not even as he carried him all the way to the living room.

»I called Vanya to come over.« Allison murmured as Diego finally moved over into the kitchen. He had left Klaus with a bleeding heart on the sofa in the living room, huddled into a few blankets. Of course, he would rather want to watch over him but, then again, Klaus was no longer a prisoner and he wanted him to realize that as soon as possible now. They wouldn't be able to continuously babysit him and they shouldn't try to as well. Klaus had always needed his freedom and he had been denied his freedom for far too long.

»Why?« Luther asked.

»Because this is a family matter.« Allison rolled her eyes. »And she is family.«

»So who’s gonna make breakfast? Should we call Mom?« Luther asked as he slowly sat down at the table. Diego only rolled his eyes as he walked over to the fridge and took out a carton of eggs. He was exhausted but that wasn't important now.

»We don't need to call Mom.« He sighed as he walked over to the stove with the eggs and the bacon and started searching for two pans.

»You can cook?« Five enquired with one sharply raised eyebrow.

»How do you think I survived on my own?« He scoffed. »Unlike Luther, I actually left this house to follow my own path, after all. And unlike our dear sister Allison, I didn't have the means to become famous and hire a professional chef.«

»Oh, please.« Allison huffed. »I am very much able to cook for my family all on my own.« She _had_ been able to - but maybe now was not the time to annoy her with remarks like these. They had more important stuff to talk about as Diego was fixing them something to eat at the stove. It was such an odd little thing to do. Everything that had seemed normal before felt alien to him now that Klaus was back in the picture. Already he was itching to look after him again. It had barely been two minutes since he had left Klaus.

»I still can't believe it.« Luther finally breathed out. »That's really Klaus over there … Right? It's really him.«

»I almost didn't recognize him.« Allison mumbled.

»I did.« Five interjected. As Diego turned around to look at him there was some odd kind of emotion crossing over his face but then it was gone as quickly as it came. »He still looks like I remembered him … but all grown up.«

»Isn't that crazy?« Allison sighed and there was a fondness to her tone of voice, something sweet and loving and kind, something Diego would never admit to having missed in the past twelve years. »We thought he was dead and now, twelve years later our little troublemaker is all grown up.«

»He looks horrible.« Luther mumbled.

»I told you so but you wouldn't listen.« Diego snarled over his shoulder and the look he got in response told him of the brewing anger inside of Luther. He wasn't so much angry at Diego now as he was angry at the situation - perhaps even himself and, dare he think it, dad. What if the miracle had finally happened and Luther had finally started to realize what kind of a person their father had been and how cruel he had treated Klaus? Hell … all it had taken his brother to finally get the message was seeing their brother in such a pitiful state.

Yay.

Gladly, and to everyone’s surprise, Luther decided not to start arguing with him now. He stared at the table as he was idly digging his blunt nails into the grain of the wood, apparently lost deep in his thoughts. Apparently, everyone was lost deep in their thoughts and Diego, though he wasn't used to his siblings being silent in such a way, was actually thankful for it as the heavenly smell of bacon and eggs started to fill the room up quite nicely.

He thought about the days after Five’s disappearance and Ben’s death. They all had been silent back then, yes, but it had been a very different kind of silence. Not one of them had dared to speak because they had been angry and sad and didn't want to hurt each other more than they were all already hurting. After Klaus faked suicide, it had been different.

Diego remembered screaming at their father and he remembered getting into a huge fight with Luther. They would have killed each other then and there had it not been for Allison going between them and breaking up their fight like she always did. But Diego … He had been so desperate to put the blame on someone else. He had been so desperate to let go of all those bottled-up emotions and his grief and his heartache for the things that could have been, the things he had lost before he had even started to realize what it was that he almost could have had.

Vanya arrived at the house just as Diego was putting down her plate on the table filled up with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon and she came, smart as she was, straight through the kitchen door. The same door Five and Diego had used last night. »Allison said it was an emergency.« Vanya stated confused at the display and surprised that Diego was here - maybe even more so by the fact that Diego was cooking for the rest of the team.

»Breakfast.« Diego murmured and gestured towards her plate as if that was the explanation for all of this. Vanya still seemed confused but he could see the little crinkle around her eyes when she tried very hard not to smile as she sat down next to Allison on the chair opposite to Diego’s. Luther, like it had to have been expected, sat at the head of the table. Sometimes, Diego was embarrassed to admit how bad of a brother he had been to Vanya. Well, he had been a bad brother to Allison as well but unlike Vanya, Allison could actually take his snide comments. It wasn't as if he wouldn't have cared about her.

He cared about all his siblings. But he hadn't been a good brother either. They had left each other hanging so many times before. They had hurt each other so deeply in the past, their words and remarks cutting much deeper than any of Diego’s knives ever could. There was a very distinct way in which only family could hurt each other. She was probably happy to find that Diego had actually prepared a plate for her as well and that alone filled him with guilt. It should be obvious that he would do that and the fact that it wasn’t was a testament to their estranged relationship.

As Vanya sat down, they exchanged a small glance that told Diego that Vanya would play dumb as long as she didn't know what the topic of today’s drama was.

»Klaus is here.« Luther finally turned to Vanya as he probably felt her gaze upon him and since he had always been insisting on being the big leader of their group, he should be the one telling her this as well, right? Vanya's face lit up in surprise and she did her damnedest not to look at Diego.

»What? How?«

»Diego had him.« Allison sighed and looked at her sister - really looked at her - before she rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair with crossed arms. »But you already knew this, didn't you?«

»I don't know what-«

»You are a bad liar, Vanya.« Allison groaned. »You went to Diego to tell him about Klaus’ being missing a few days ago. You knew it, right?«

»What?« Luther almost exploded and he felt sympathy for the way Vanya flinched at the sound. »You knew it?«

»I didn't- I mean- I suspected- but-«

»She didn't know it.« Diego finally saved her from the scrutiny of their siblings. »She came to me and I didn't tell her and I didn't show Klaus to her either. She didn't _know_.«

»But she suspected it.« Five huffed. »I can't say that I am surprised. I mean, honestly, Luther. Of course, she could put two and two together. Everyone could. Diego was the only person in ten years to visit him and he happened to be the last person to visit Klaus - not to mention how aggressive he was towards the director, according to what the police told us anyway. Of course, Diego took Klaus, it was obvious.«

»Oh, of course.« Luther huffed. »Just big stupid Luther didn't get it, right? I hope you guys got a few good laughs in then.«

»I think we have more important things to discuss than your hurt ego.« Diego sighed and played a little absentmindedly with his butterknife while Five was digging into his food next to him without much care in the world, a nice cup of black coffee on the table. »For example, what are we going to do now?«

»Diego is right.« Vanya jumped back in even though she was usually timid and shy in discussions with the rest of them. No wonder really after all those times they had shut her up. »The police is searching for Klaus and it's only a matter of time until they will come here again. They are probably searching for Diego as well.«

Because, yes, it had been obvious and everyone except Luther had been able to put two and two together. Allison was probably guilty of not saying anything as well and even Luther had to realize that - which only fueled his anger judging by everything Diego knew about his brother. Luther was not a bad guy per se. He was more like a loyal dog. He wasn’t always the smartest but neither was Diego and Luther had a very caring side to him as well, even though mostly only Allison got to see that side of him. However, when he was starting to get angry, he was like a ticking time bomb.

»So, now we are housing a criminal who broke into a mental asylum and stole a patient and a mentally unstable and possibly very dangerous patient from a mental asylum. Great.« Luther groaned and raked his fingers through his short blonde hair. Sometimes he missed the old Luther. Not that Luther had ever been fun to be around or possessed any sense of humor, but he hadn't been quite so stuck-up all the time. Maybe he would have even seen the humor in this situation. Klaus would laugh his little ass off if he would realize the situation he was in.

»What was I supposed to do?« Diego argued back at last with furrowed brows and the will to fight his brother on that matter if it would come to this - and, let's be honest, it would come to this. »Huh, Luther? Leave him there? Have him suffer? You said it yourself: He looks horrible, absolutely horrible and you have not seen the conditions he was kept in. When I got him out, he thought he was still seventeen! Jesus Christ, Luther, he didn't even recognize me! I still don't know if he realizes what's going on around him or who I am or how much time has passed. They turned him into a fucking vegetable in that hospital!«

»I trust that Dad did the right thing and made sure that the best care was provided to Klaus!«

»You _trust_ dad?« Diego echoed a little louder than necessary. »What show have you been watching?« He noticed the glance Allison shot him and he could read it's meaning well enough to know what she wanted to tell him, yet, he chose to ignore it. »You of all people should hate the old bastard! He sent you to the moon because he couldn't stand looking at you!«

As Luther jumped to his feet, Diego did the same thing, ready to fight his brother and his fingers already itching for one of his knives.

»Take that back!« Luther demanded very much like the child that was still buried deep within his humongous body. »You don't know what it was like!«

»You are right, I don't know! But you of all people should know what it's like to be locked away by dad! He sent you to the moon and locked Klaus up in that loony bin! Not that you would have cared about that, right? You never cared about him! You would have let him rot in that asylum had I not broken him out! So, yes, I broke him out and I am not sorry because one of us had to act like a leader and you are clearly not cut out for that job, Fatass!«

Apparently, all it took for Luther to throw the first punch was this stupid little playground insult - not that Diego would have been surprised by that turn of events. Forgotten was the breakfast on the table as Diego skillfully jumped out of Luther’s reach, ducked underneath his arm and kicked him against the back of his knee. That, in turn, only made Luther angrier like a raging bull that didn't know better than to fight back. And to no surprise, because that was what their father had taught them, wasn't it? Luther and Diego had only ever learned to solve their problem with their fists and that was why they wouldn't function in normal society and would never find a proper place among normal human beings.

It were those thoughts that fueled Diego's rage. Not only on his own behalf. He thought about Klaus who had been locked up for twelve years and who would probably never have a proper life after their father had destroyed and broken him so badly.

However, before Diego even knew what was happening or before he could throw another kick at him, something jumped on Luther’s back, quickly and viciously, clawing at his skull from behind with as much strength and ferocity as a squirrel. It took him almost two seconds to realize that it was Klaus who was now clinging to Luther’s back about to bite his ear off as he already sunk his teeth into his flesh like a bloodthirsty gremlin.

»Klaus!« He shot out but that didn’t suffice to get his brother’s attention. For once, Diego was helpless in this situation. He didn't know what to do or how to get Klaus off Luther’s back without hurting the frail man.

»Get him off!« Luther groaned and though he would have had an easy time to just throw Klaus off, he didn't. In the end, Luther was not completely dumb and probably knew that he would at least break a few bones in Klaus’ body would he do something like this. There was no time to react, however, as a shot rang out in the kitchen and Klaus suddenly stilled his attack before his grip became slack and he fell off Luther’s back. Diego was quick enough to actually catch him before he could hit the ground. Almost he expected to see blood pool around Klaus’ body, but he only found a small dart sticking out of his neck.

»Did you just shoot our brother?« Allison almost screeched and as Diego looked up, he found Five with a rifle in his hands in the doorway. In all the turmoil, he hadn't noticed how Five zapped out of the room - let alone how he zapped back in.

»Biting is a little much.« Five frowned. »And quite rude. You're welcome.«

»What's that rifle?« Luther groaned rubbing his ear. He was bleeding quite a lot and Diego was honestly surprised that Klaus had been able to do so much damage to his brother’s poor head.

»Dad used this for trophy hunting.« Five shrugged. »It was in his office - like those tranquilizer darts.«

»You shot our brother.« Diego repeated Allison’s words with a dark glare and though he should be glad that Five had been so quick to act, he was vibrating with anger instead. Had Diego not been so quick to catch him, Klaus could have gotten seriously hurt. Not to mention that Five had just _shot_ their brother!

»As I said: You're welcome. Now if you could stop your senseless arguing and get back to the problem at hand. We need to figure out how we want to deal with this.« He gestured to Klaus with his free hand - the one that was not holding the rifle with which he had just _shot_ their helpless brother. Well, maybe he was not so helpless anyway.

»Well, now we at least now that the report was true. Klaus is indeed quite dangerous.« Vanya mumbled.

»I am almost glad to see that he still knows that one move Diego taught him when we were like … four.« Allison added with a mirthless little chuckle as Diego picked up their unconscious brother and scooped him up in his arms.

Apparently, that was now his life. Allison was right, though. Klaus had never been much of a fighter. Not that he wouldn't have liked a little violence here and there. Klaus had always been the one to cheer Diego on when he would fight with Luther as if he was watching a boxing match. Yet, he hadn't been a very talented fighter himself and that had never changed. Jumping on other peoples backs had been his go-to move from the moment Diego had taught him how he could use his body to his advantage onwards.

In retrospect, that could have been a mistake.

 

**-End of Chapter 9-**


	10. Chapter 10

They all seemed to be in dire need of a drink or two as they gathered in the living room around Klaus and although Diego felt the itch to tell Five that he wasn’t allowed to drink, he opted for downing his own glass of whiskey instead. Who was he to tell Five what he could and could not do? If the little gremlin wanted to knock himself out to make the situation better, then Diego would probably be unable to stop him. Five had always been stubborn. Keeping everyone in check was Luther’s job anyway. He wanted to be Number One, right?

Grace had spent a few moments to clean up Luther’s ear and patch him up with a concerned little frown before she had checked up on Klaus and scolded Five for shooting her baby boy with a tranquilizer dart. Not that Five would have cared.

Diego felt odd in his seat in the old armchair next to the sofa where he had dumped Klaus, aware of everyone staring at Klaus. As Diego glanced over his right shoulder, he found Klaus’ portrait staring back at him from the shadows. He wanted to rip it down from the wall and throw it into the crackling fire of the fireplace. His siblings would probably think that this was rude. This thought only fueled his desire to feed the portrait to the flames. And while he was on it, he would add Five’s portrait to the flames as well.

»So, any ideas?« Diego muttered into his drink. Not that he really wanted to talk to his siblings about anything at all now. But when did he ever get what he wanted?

»As far as I see it, we only have two options.« Luther spoke up and Diego already didn't like his brother’s ideas. »We could deliver him back to the asylum.«

»Not gonna happen.« Diego shot back right away and was glad to hear agreeing murmurs from the rest of his siblings. Luther too didn't seem fond of the idea.

»Then we need to make the asylum stop searching for him. But how are we gonna do that?«

»We could try to get dirt on them.« Five offered a smirk on his face. »I bet Dad’s fortune that they are doing something shady there. We could blackmail them. It would be easy for me to jump in and get the information we need.«

»Or« Allison chimed up before her brothers could all agree on this idea because something like this was something they would all like. It seemed the brothers only ever banded together when the idea was stupid and bound to backfire. And it wasn't as if Diego wouldn't be able to see in how many ways this plan could backfire on them. »I could go there and rumor the director, get him to stop, get him and the rest to forget Klaus was ever there.«

They were surprised to hear something like that coming from her. Until now, Allison had not seemed fond of the idea of using her powers anymore. Even though he hadn't talked much with her since they all came back to the house for good old Reggie’s funeral, Diego was smart enough to realize how much troubles her powers might have gotten her into at times. Knowing his sister, she probably abused her power and got what she deserved in the end.

»That would be … much easier.« Vanya shrugged, as always the voice of reason. She was right. Having Allison manipulate those people into forgetting about Klaus would be much easier. But it wasn't the answer still.

»What about the police? They will be confused when the hospital suddenly just forget about Klaus.« Diego interjected with a frown.

»They need to be fed another story.« Allison sighed. »I can do that. And we can come up with a new story why Klaus is alive.«

»We don't even need to make one up.« Five scoffed and raised his glass to the portrait of their late father hanging on the far wall and watching over his children with cold and unforgiving eyes. »Our father told us he was dead because to him Klaus _was_ dead. He was an embarrassment and disappointment after getting into drugs and Dad didn't want his reputation to be tarnished. And then Klaus came back after the funeral.«

Diego thought about Eudora. She wouldn't believe that story. Not after everything she knew about Diego and his past and after everything that had happened. Then again, it was not her case, right? Maybe he would be able to make her drop it, even though she was not exactly the biggest fan of him most of the time. They still were old friends and so Diego still had a chance, he guessed. Maybe if he would just focus his trademark Diego Hargreeves charm on her … Well, she would probably arrest him if he tried that. She knew him, after all.

»We should at least try that.« Luther agreed finally but Diego’s eyes rested upon Klaus again. He couldn't deny that he had been surprised, yes, shocked, as Klaus had attacked Luther out of nowhere. He still couldn't quite grasp why Klaus had done this in the first place. He had probably woken up from Luther and Diego screaming at each other and instead of shying away, he came and … what? Jumped Luther because he and Diego had fought? Why had he jumped Luther and not him? Or had he tried to protect Diego?

It wasn't that unlikely, he assumed. Klaus had always had a protective streak, though maybe not as prominently as it was in Diego or Luther. He remembered how Klaus had often stepped between one of them and Vanya during a fight. He remembered Klaus defending Vanya or Ben or whoever he thought was the weaker party during an argument.

»We still should try to get our hands on his file.« Diego then muttered as he leaned back in his seat before he extended a hand to his sleeping brother to feel his forehead. It was still warm but he was slowly getting better. It was a relief, of course, but Diego was still a little mad that Five had deemed it necessary to shoot Klaus with a tranquilizer after everything he had gone through. Diego was highly aware of how Luther was looking at him as he was focussing back on his siblings but whatever his brother wanted to say, he decided not to. Good. »Just in case. And we should probably know what has been done to him all those years.«

»What do you mean?« Luther sighed. »Diego he was in a mental institution not in Guantanamo Bay. What could they have possibly done to him? They probably pumped him full of drugs and locked him up.«

»They said he was dangerous.«

»Yeah, not shit.« Luther huffed. »I mean they were right, weren’t they? Look what he did to my ear.«

»But does that sound like Klaus to you?« Vanya suddenly chimed up, grasping what Diego was on about. »That's not like Klaus at all, is what Diego is trying to say, right? So … what if they did something to Klaus to make him that way?«

»You think they made him dangerous and aggressive on purpose?« Allison raised her brows in disbelief.

»No.« Vanya murmured. »No … I mean … Whatever they did might have led to Klaus starting to lash out? As a last resort? We know him … He was never aggressive or violent in any way. He was always rebellious and wild, yes, but never aggressive. He tried to avoid violence whenever he could and he was never much of a fighter. Maybe he just tried to protect himself against whatever they did to him. I mean … It would be possible, right?«

»As I said: I think something shady is going on at that place.« Five agreed as he got up to fetch himself another drink just as a small groan ripped from Klaus’ throat. Diego tensed right away, knowing that Klaus was probably about to wake up and find himself surrounded by total strangers. This was going to be a disaster.

Diego acted out of instinct as he put his own half-empty glass aside and went into a crouch in front of the couch so that Klaus would look at him first and he would block his view of the others for a few precious seconds. Diego didn't care what the others would think of him as he brushed his fingers through his hair as gently as he could, coaxing him back into the world of the living.

»Hey…« He muttered quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, as he saw Klaus’ eyelids flutter. Not long after, Klaus actually opened his eyes. Thankfully, his siblings decided that it would be best for them to keep their mouths shut right now as to not spook their mentally unstable brother. Finally, some common sense.

Still, Klaus flinched just a bit as he opened his eyes and looked at Diego. He didn't flinch away from his touch though and once more Diego was almost a little afraid that his brother was still seeing just another caretaker in him, a nurse, perhaps, and that he was too scared of Diego to even flinch away from him. However, to Diego’s genuine surprise, Klaus actually leaned into the touch now as Diego rested his left hand tenderly on Klaus’ cheek.

»Diego?« He murmured and just hearing his name come over Klaus’ brittle lips made his heart jump a little. Was he finally recognizing him? Was he finally realizing that he was indeed his brother with whom he had grown up?

»I’m here.« Diego replied quieter than before almost as if he didn't want his siblings to hear, deep down inside of him. As if he was sharing a secret with Klaus that their siblings should not know of. It wouldn't be the first time. As Klaus tried to move, Diego was helping him to sit up slowly. »Careful.« He mumbled before Klaus was able to lean his back against the backrest of the couch and Diego was already tucking the blanket safely around him again so that he wouldn't be cold. Heck, he really was a mother hen, wasn't he?

Then, however, he noticed how Klaus’ eyes darted over the rest of their group. His eyes fell immediately on Five and he seemed startled by his presence in the room but he quickly moved on over to Vanya and Allison. Recognition dawned on his face. As he was looking at Luther, though, he really did flinch. »Christ on a cracker…«

Diego would have laughed if Klaus didn't seem so scared of them all. However, before anyone could say anything, Klaus’ eyes kept wandering, searching for something - someone. »Where’s Ben?« He drawled and everyone inside the room tensed, even more so as Klaus finally spoke up again with a small smile crossing his features for just a second. »Ah … There you are.« He was staring at some point behind Luther and immediately the big guy turned his face to look at the spot just like everyone else but of course, there was nothing there. Just empty air. A mutual feeling of uneasiness swept across the room like a wave of cold water.

Before Diego could say something, however, Luther proved once more that patience was not one of their family’s strong suits. »Klaus.« He addressed the smaller man as Diego sat down on the sofa right next to him. »What do you remember?«

Klaus’ gaze slowly slipped from the spot he was staring at and wandered back to the giant in the room to look at him as if Luther was indeed an alien. Klaus had always had this thousand yards stare that seemed so indicative of his personality and the things he could see that they were all blind to. Years ago, they had all mocked Klaus for staring at nothing at all with those wide eyes and claimed that it was just the drugs. Now, however, Diego was more concerned whether or not his time at the asylum had succeeded in breaking Klaus’ spirit completely. Klaus had always been bright and creative and wild. It seemed too cruel to even think about the possibility to have lost this Klaus forever.

»White.« Klaus said after a while and other than his quiet voice, silence lay heavily upon the room. »Just white.«

※※※※※※※

He felt like the house could collapse on top of him any second now as he listened to Vanya playing her violin. He lay curled up on the sofa in the living room again, a heavy blanket resting on top of him while Vanya stood right next to the giant windows playing the instrument. She shouldn't stand so close to the windows. They could burst into a million pieces any second now and rip her face to shreds. It was still odd to see this tiny woman and call her Vanya. Then again ... She did look like Vanya, as far as he remembered, at least. Vanya had stopped growing when they turned fourteen and this woman was still just as short and petite with the same sad brown eyes and the same pale face.

He liked listening to her play. It was oddly comforting and he remembered listening to her play her instrument a long time ago. They were alone in the living room, well, except for Ben who was hovering on the armchair close by his side, and that in and of itself was rare. He didn't know how long he was already back at his childhood home, everything seemed to be quite the blur most days. He could hardly discern between day and night or the passing of time.

However, since he came back here, no one would ever leave him alone. He was not locked in a room either. He was allowed to walk through the mansion and go where he wanted to go within the building but he was always chaperoned by someone. Mostly Diego. He liked having Diego by his side. He liked having Allison and Five and Vanya by his side. When it would be just Luther and him, he would be uneasy. Luther was such a huge guy and he could possibly crush Klaus’ skull with just his left hand.

He and Luther had never had the best relationship and he felt like this wouldn't change all too soon either. Especially not after Klaus had apparently almost bitten off his ear. Suddenly, the music stopped and it took Ben to clear his throat for Klaus to look at Vanya again. She looked at him with concern written all over her face before a small tender smile crossed her features.

»You are trembling.« She smiled and put her violin on another armchair as if she would know that Ben was occupying the one closest to the sofa before stepping closer. »Are you cold?« He barely had time to answer before she put her hand on his forehead.

»No.« He replied. Using his voice after what felt like an eternity was almost painful and he tried not to as much as possible. Despite being here in this house for a few days now, he was still scared out of his mind that the next moment Nurse Parker would come back to fetch him and bring him back to his little white room.

»Do you want to go out in the yard for a few minutes? It's such a beautiful day outside.« Her smile was that of his sister Vanya for sure. It was timid and careful, not well-practiced like Allison’s smiles had always been. It was real. It felt real. And her voice was much the same as well. Vanya’s voice had always been a little like a cloud. No … No, that didn't make any sense now, did it? Then again, nothing made sense.

»You should go.« Ben’s voice came from the armchair and as he glanced at him, he found his brother smiling encouragingly. Ben and Five were his only remaining fixpoints in this house. They hadn't changed. »When was the last time you was out in the sun?«

»When was the last time you were out in the sun?« Vanya echoed as if he had heard Ben. Her smile told him that this had not been the case. Gently she tucked at his hand to get him to stand. Klaus clutched his soft white blanket a bit harder as he slowly got to his feet. He wasn't wearing socks or shoes and he was used to that feeling. Diego, however, would always groan when he would see him barefoot and go fetch socks for him to put them on Klaus’ feet. The house was still just as cold as Klaus remembered.

»But Luther…«

»I know.« Vanya smirked and pulled the blanket tightly around Klaus’ shoulders. »We won't be out long. And we stay in the courtyard. No one will see you. I’m certain he will agree that it's okay. And don't worry about Diego either. He needs to stop worrying so much. How are you supposed to get better without good old Vitamin D anyway?«

He used to love the sun. He used to find himself a nice warm spot in the sun outside in the courtyard and just lay there until his father would yell at him to come inside. Father was dead. Diego was telling him over and over that the old man was dead. He wouldn't come to scream at Klaus now, right? But all the other ghosts were. Why wasn't his father here?

Vanya led him outside through the glass doors into the yard, grabbing him carefully by his elbow as if afraid he would wander off. »I missed you.« She admitted quietly as they walked outside into the sunny yard. It was still cold, the year was only starting but the sun was strong already. »We all missed you so much. I am so glad that you are back - that you are alive and here and…« She stopped and would she be Allison, he would have thought that she was about to cry. Instead, she just took a deep breath as they were strolling across the courtyard.

Soon he was embraced by the warm light of the sun and felt the heat of these late winter days tingle on his skin. Twelve years. He still couldn't quite believe it. Twelve whole years. Apparently, what Diego had told him was the truth. He had been locked up for twelve years and still, this information didn't make any sense to him.

»I understand if it's all too much.« Vanya sighed. »You need time to wrap your head around what happened. We all do.«

»My head is filled with cotton.« He heard himself murmur. Here, outside of the house, there weren't quite as many ghosts at the very least. Only a little boy with a twisted neck standing in a corner of the yard, facing away from Klaus as if he didn't want Klaus to actually look at him. Inside, it was almost too much to bear at times. But the howling was much quieter than it had been in the white room where he had been kept for such a long time.

»It's getting better.« He didn't believe that. It didn't seem as if he would ever be getting better. Whatever that meant in his case. To get better, he assumed, he needed to know what was wrong first. And, at the moment, Klaus didn't even know what to make of anything. What if that was all just some weird fever dream? What if none of this was real? It wouldn't be the first time. In the distance, he could see the vaguely familiar shape of a soldier standing at the gate giving him a crisp salute.

»I want to go home.« His head hurt at the thought. He wanted to go home. The thought was like a virus in the back of his head. It was spreading and growing and growing. He felt it gnawing at his insides like some form of parasite. It was eating him alive. »I want to go home.« He _needed_ to go home. Inside his little white room, it was safe, right? He wasn't supposed to be out here. He wasn't supposed to be out of his room.

As he looked at Vanya, he felt panic rising in his chest. His sister’s eyes were white and her pupils popping out like the deep pits of the abyss. Her eyes were those of a corpse, staring at him without expression, staring without emotion like the eyes of a fish. There was a gaping slash across her throat but no blood was running out. She had long gone dry and started to waste away with each passing second. Her skin was grey and the dried blood black against the skin of her throat, coating her grey button down shirt.

»Klaus?« She opened her mouth but it was the gaping maw of a beast, her teeth yellow and rotten.

He felt dizzy and his head buzzing with pain. There was static in his ear and the sharp ringing sound of a fire alarm going off inside of him. He needed to go home. He wasn't allowed to leave his room. He wasn't allowed to leave. Nurse Parker would be terribly mad at him. She would tie him to his bed again or she would put him in the straightjacket. She would drag him into the horrible room with the row of bathtubs and then she would force him under the surface until his lungs would fill with cold water, until he would almost drown, until he would almost forget who he was.

And there would be hands on him in the darkness again and again, and he would be unable to do anything about it. His mouth would be clasped shut, there would be the foul taste of something in his throat, bile rising in his stomach and burn in the back of his mouth. And the ghosts would scream at him. They would pile around him, corner him until their gaunt faces would be everything he was able to see while he would be crushed by a weight sitting on his chest.

»Klaus!« He felt something wet and hot dripping over his face but the world was out of focus, distorted and warped. He could hear the screeching sound coming from the throat of a woman but he could only see the demons and ghouls crowding him as he lashed out and tried clawing at them. He was soon overwhelmed, unable to save himself before he was dragged under the earth again, into a cold dirty grave.

※※※※※※※

Diego Hargreeves had never felt as much pressure as he did now, sitting in the kitchen surrounded by his brothers and sisters at the center of their very much negative attention with their eyes drilling holes into his body relentlessly. Vanya was the only one not staring at him. She was still shell-shocked after what had happened, pressing a cloth to her delicate pale throat. Allison sat right beside her, one arm wrapped around her protectively and checking ever so often on the gruesome wound on her sister's neck.

Fuck.

»We need to do something.« Luther said in a sigh of air leaving his throat as if he needed a bit of force to actually say those words. Diego would have rolled his eyes if the situation wouldn't be so dire. »We can't keep going on like this. He needs professional help.«

»A-And w-what d-do you wanna do now?« Diego hissed, biting back his stutter as best as he could even though it was pointless. His siblings knew him too well. Even the great dark brooding Diego Hargreeves, Mr. too cool for school, was still shocked by what had happened in the yard. »S-Send him b-back to the asylum? T-They made him t-this way!«

»I’m not saying we should send him back!« Luther groaned. They already had this conversation for what felt like the hundredths time since Diego brought Klaus to this house four days ago. Four days and Klaus had already twice attacked one of his siblings. »But we need to do something. He could have killed her today.«

»Then you better come up with a plan, _Number One_. You want to be the leader? F-Fine. But then stop talking and actually form a plan of a-action!«

»You act like you don't even care what he did!« Luther erupted. »He almost killed our sister with just his bare hands and you are still going to pretend like Klaus is that innocent little guy you want to protect? He is _dangerous_ , Diego! We’ve seen it now twice! That's no longer our freaky little brother Klaus!«

»Hey…« Vanya croaked though Allison tried to shush her. »It really … It’s not so bad…«

He felt a swell of love for Vanya in his chest at her words. She, much like Diego, had always had a soft spot for Klaus. Perhaps because she knew what it was like to be different - which was pretty ironic considering what their family was all about. Still, in this house having superpowers was the normal and Vanya hadn't been normal in that sense. And outside of this house where they all should have been freaks, it had still been Vanya who hadn't quite fit in despite making a living for herself quite decently. She knew the struggle and Vanya had always tried to keep the peace. Still, that gash in her throat was nasty and Luther was right. Klaus could have killed her had Luther not came back home through the gate leading into the yard right at that moment.

Diego remembered rushing out as he had heard the commotion, finding Vanya on the ground with a hand to her throat, blood seeping through her fingers and Klaus limp in Luther's arms. He had been working out in their old gym as it had happened. His first reaction had been to attack Luther and get Klaus, but he had settled for helping Vanya instead. There was still a bit of her blood coated under his fingernails. If it wouldn't be for Luther's quick reaction or for Mom’s skill, she might have died. And it would have been Diego’s fault for not taking this more seriously. And all this damage that had been done to Vanya’s throat … Klaus had done it just with his fingernails. What the hell had they done to him in that asylum?

As if reading his mind, Vanya forced a small smile as their eyes met. She extended her hand towards him and gently clasped her left hand over his right that was lying on the table between them. The touch only lingered for half a second before she pulled away. Still, it was enough to make Diego realize that the sister he had liked to mock and scare away and insult the first time they all came back together at the house, still had his back despite everything.

»What are we g-gonna do…« He heard himself mumble as he lowered his gaze to the surface of the wooden table, digging his nails into the grain of the wood to distract himself. His shoulders were heavy in defeat as he sat there. What if they wouldn't be able to fix Klaus? What if he was too far gone for them to reach him? He wished Ben was here. Ben had always known how to reach Klaus.

God, he missed that little punk.

»He … He said he wanted to go home.« Vanya then recalled quietly. »He repeated it over and over. He was afraid, I guess. No … Not afraid. He was completely … freaked out, _terrified_.«

»Of what?« Luther asked with furrowed brows.

»I don't know.« She shrugged and then winced. With a frown, Allison took the cloth away from her throat to have a look at mom’s handiwork. She had stitched the cut but it was about time they would wrap a bit of gauze around it, even though Vanya hadn't liked the idea before. »I think … No, I don't know.«

»What?« Five pressed on. Five, who had been sitting on the kitchen counter silently until now.

»Well, he looked as if he was seeing someone. Not me, though. He looked at me like I was gone, like I was someone else and he was afraid. That was why he lashed out, I guess. He was afraid.«

»That's no excuse.« Allison huffed and got up from her chair to drag Vanya up as well. She would take care of her now. She had this look on her face, the _big sister look_. It was, apparently, the same look Diego got when he was taking care of Klaus. »Afraid or not, he can't go around attacking us. There is no excuse for that. He almost bit off Luther’s ear and now he almost clawed out Vanya's throat! He did that with his fingernails! That's not normal! That's no normal reaction when someone is afraid! And he has been here for only four days so what’s next? Are we all gonna be dead by the end of the week?«

»You are overreacting.« Diego groaned.

»Am I?« Allison almost shrieked and he understood her. By God, he did. He was just as terrified of the situation as she was. »Look at Vanya! Look at Luther! And if Klaus had killed her, her death would have been on your hands, Diego!«

»Allison-«

»No, Five! It's true and we all know that. He decided to steal a mentally unstable man from a closed off mental asylum, a man of whom he knew was considered to be dangerous and was not allowed out of his cell for that matter! He did it without talking to us first, he did it without considering the ramifications! And now look at what Klaus has done since he is here! Maybe none of you is willing to say it as to not upset Diego but someone has to! Maybe we should bring him back there. Maybe it's good that I didn't go there to rumor those people already! Klaus needs professional help, Diego, and I start to realize that the same might be true for you as well!«

»Allie-« Vanya tried but was cut off right away.

»You never got over his death and that's why you are doing this now. That's the reason. Not because you want to help our brother but because you felt guilty and wanna make amends now! I, however, won't sleep in this house even one more night door to door with that complete psychopath!«

Leaving those words hanging heavily over their heads, Allison dragged Vanya out of the kitchen. There was a certain truth to her words that Diego refused to acknowledge because it would just be too horrible to do so. It would be letting Klaus down and allowing his doubts to get the better of him. He couldn't do that. He couldn't just give up on Klaus. And yet, he had sympathy for his sister and her fear of Klaus. He remembered how she had brushed her fingers through his curls with such tenderness and love just a few days ago. And now, only ninety-six hours later, she was terrified of that same brother.

Diego wouldn't be Diego, though, if he would just take it and leave it. Diego wouldn't be Diego if he would agree with Allison and Luther. He couldn't. Judging by the way Five looked at him from the kitchen counter where he was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge, he knew that too.

»If we are not welcome here, I’ll find us another place.«

Because he couldn't go back to the gym anymore, could he? Al had been serious. He didn't have a home outside of the academy anymore and Klaus and he were still wanted men as it was. He knew that he couldn't just leave with his brother and find a new place like this. Klaus’ face was probably all over the news as a wanted dangerous psychopath who broke out of a facility for the insane. Fuck. Fucking Hell.

»You stay.« Five claimed before Luther could speak up and ruin everything again. Even though it wouldn't be Luther's intention, that was just their dynamic, he supposed. »But I have to agree with Allison. It's not safe to have him sleep in his room like this when we can't be sure that whatever has triggered him won't trigger him in the middle of the night and make him cut our throats.«

»We are not locking him up.« Diego growled right away. »He is not an animal. He is our brother and he needs us!«

»I was not planning on locking him up.« Five rolled his eyes. »Don't get your panties in a bunch. In one aspect, Allison was right, though. You broke him out without thinking this through and thus, Klaus is your responsibility, Diego. You decided all of this without us and so you will have to bear the consequences. I think it's only just that we should have you guys bunk together from now on.«

»So that I will be the first one to get his throat slit?« Diego mocked. He wasn't afraid of the risk. Despite what happened, he couldn't imagine Klaus hurting him.

»He won't.« Luther huffed finally.

»Oh? Wasn't he a violent dangerous psychopath just a few seconds ago? Weren't you guys all so afraid he would go around killing us one after the other at night?«

»He _is_ dangerous.« Five emphasized. »We've seen that.«

»But he won't hurt you.« Luther nodded. The look he gave Diego was beyond odd. He couldn't even put his finger on it. He wanted to ask what he meant as Luther rose from his chair but he couldn't bring himself to do it and it wasn't necessary either. »He had always had a soft spot for you, after all.«

 

**-End of Chapter 10-**


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Biting people is rude.

Setting up a bedroom in the old greenhouse in the attic had been Five’s idea of all people. He was probably the last person Diego would have expected to propose a solution to their little problem like this. He was glad he had, though. Clearing out the space while Klaus had been sleeping under Grace’s watchful eyes after the attack on Vanya, and getting another mattress up there, had been easy enough for two strong guys like Diego and Luther. As he lay there in the darkness and staring at the night sky above, he had to admit that it was actually quite nice up here. He didn't need a fancy bed, as had been pretty evident by his apartment at the gym. He was perfectly fine with the mattress on the ground and his brother beside him sleeping soundly on another mattress just a few inches away from him.

After what had happened with Vanya, they had come to the decision it would be best to knock him out for the rest of the day. Well, no that was not entirely true. It had been _Luther’s_ decision and Diego had bitched about it. They had only woken him up to feed him at dinner time before Klaus had fallen right back asleep. They hadn't even needed to drug him again, thankfully. Klaus was exhausted from everything he was going through these days and whatever Mom had given him earlier in the day was apparently enough to keep him under.

He felt for him.

In the darkness, he actually turned on his side and reached out for Klaus. He still couldn't believe that he was really here with him. He felt the excessive need to touch Klaus these days and he knew that this made the rest of his siblings uncomfortable but he couldn't care less. Klaus always seemed to melt into his touch in some way, as if he was craving it just as much as Diego was.

 _Oh, that's not good, Diego,_ he thought. _That can’t be good._

Yet, what was wrong about the way he might or might not feel for his brother? Allison and Luther were clearly already circling each other again like they had as teenagers and no one was batting a lash about that. It just was what it was with those two and no one cared. Why would it be different if he and Klaus would … _No_. He couldn't think about shit like this. Not now. Not yet. Not when Klaus needed him first and foremost to be his brother right now. He needed to be his brother and he needed to take care of him. Everything else was just confetti - as Klaus liked to say when they had been mere children and not exactly knew what confetti was.

He took his hand away from that of his brother again as he turned on his back slowly to watch the stars above. They had all the time in the world to get behind what all of this was, right? Diego finally closed his eyes and listened just to the sound of Klaus’ deep breathing right beside him before he fell asleep himself.

For the first time in years, Diego was granted a peaceful sleep without the need to kick some random thug’s ass before he went to bed. Usually, he didn't fall asleep, he fell unconscious of exhaustion and would stay this way until morning. It wasn't that he was battling nightmares like some of his siblings. It was just that he rather not get bullied relentlessly by his own mind when he tried to rest. They were all so fucked up in their own ways.

However, his peaceful sleep didn't hold up long, as far as he was able to tell later. Diego was ripped from his sleep at once and didn't quite know why at first. As he woke up he was confused for just a second as to where he was. It wasn't his room and it wasn't his apartment. He could see the stars above him and there was movement close by. Not directly next to him, but close enough that it had rattled him. He could make out muffled sounds in the darkness. His first thought was that Klaus had another nightmare but as he reached over, the other mattress was vacant.

As he realized that Klaus was not next to him on the mattress anymore, he immediately jumped to his feet. His first instinct was to find the light switch for those damn fairy lights that hung all over the place but, there, in a sliver of light from the moon outside, Klaus stood in one corner of the room, scratching at the wall with his bare fingers, mumbling to himself.

Diego didn't waste any time to get over to his brother and he should have probably thought about how much of a mistake that could possibly be before he went over to him. Judging by what had happened to Vanya last time Klaus had one of his episodes. After everything that had already happened, he should have expected Klaus to lunge at him in the darkness of the attic. He probably startled the other man as he rushed over to him, grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him away from the wall before he could do even more damage to his own hands in scratching at the walls like a rat. Before Diego even know what was happening, Klaus was upon him, his slender fingers curling around his neck with more strength than he would have ever thought possible from his brother.

Klaus' nails were digging into his neck, clawing at his skin, bloody form what damage he had already done to himself, but Diego wasn’t Vanya and it was easy for him to overpower the other man eventually as he was able to grab his wrists and pry his hands away from his neck.

»Klaus, what the fuck?« He didn't mean to yell at him. There was still this voice in the back of his head reminding him that it wasn’t Klaus’ fault, that his brother wasn’t the one who was in control of the situation and that he didn't mean to hurt Diego in any way but that didn't stop his anger from boiling over.

He felt betrayed that Klaus had attacked him - _him_ of all people - and it was stupid. Klaus had no idea what was going on, he wasn’t fully there and Diego had frightened him. He probably didn't even recognize him. But that couldn't change what Diego felt at that moment as he grabbed Klaus’ wrists with his own hands tightly in an almost bruising grip.

»It's me, Diego!« He growled forcefully as he gave his wrists a small shake and only the sob that escaped Klaus’ throat could extinguish his anger like rain would a fire. He became aware of how hard he was grabbing the other man so suddenly that it all but startled him. Klaus seemed so frail that he might as well have injured him with his death grip. If he would be Luther, Klaus’ wrists would be broken now.

»I-I’m getting the lights…« He mumbled suddenly unsure what he should do with Klaus. He was actually glad to be able to get a bit distance between his brother and himself again as he rushed to the door where the light switch was - if only for a few precious seconds that he could use to force his heart to slow down from pounding against his ribcage.

Soon the warm glow of the fairy lights filled the attic room. As he turned around, he found Klaus scrambling over to his bed again. He seemed unsteady on his legs but to Diego’s surprise, he didn't stop at his bed but instead moved over to Allison and Luther’s old makeshift tent that they had crafted out of old sheets and dusty pillows in another life when they had all been just so innocent still with their eyes full of wonder for each other and the world surrounding them. Despite being so tall, Klaus easily fit in the tight space as he almost curled in on himself, his knees tightly pressed to his chest and his forehead resting against his knees.

He looked so defeated the way he sat there, his whole body shaking with tremors, vibrating on the spot as if he had electricity surging through his veins. He seemed clearer though. Less confused. Which was beyond odd after what had just happened between them.

For a moment, Diego just stood where he was, hesitant to even move a muscle. The light was still dim but it was enough to see how Klaus buried his fingers in his curls and clawed at his hair, nearly ripping it out at the roots. He could still hear him mumbling. It crushed him to see him like this. It wasn't new to him that Klaus would be talking to someone only he could see - that was kinda his thing after all - but in this situation, Diego couldn't help but be terrified on his behalf.

Diego had never felt uneasy in his brother's presence but now was the first time he really was. Not because he might be dangerous. Diego could easily overpower him, after all. He was uneasy because he felt watched by hundreds of invisible people standing around the room, people only his brother could see.

»H-Hey … Remember … Remember that survival training we had in the woods once?« Where did that come from? The memory had just come into his head without any kind of warning. Klaus let out a low whine and to Diego’s horror, he began clawing at his own eyes then as if whatever he was seeing was just too horrible to bear.

Diego didn't mean to rush over to him and startle him again. Still, Diego hurried over to Klaus and crouched down in front of him. He quickly took hold of his hands again to keep Klaus from hurting himself. He flinched at the touch and Diego was unable to tell if he was hurting or startled by Diego appearing so suddenly in his field of vision. Already he could see angry red welts on his face where Klaus had scratched himself. At least he hadn't been able to do any real damage to his face or his eyes. This time, Diego was more careful. He didn't use much force as he held onto his hands and dragged them away from his face and he didn't scowl or frown but tried his hand at a reassuring smile.

It was probably not the best idea to crawl into the tent with him but Diego still did it and he still pulled Klaus closer against him so that they could both comfortably sit in the tent.

»Dad thought it would be great for team building to send us all out in the Rockies and have us camp in the middle of the woods for a week, to survive on our own. Of course, he had us monitored, but we were still on our own.« Diego murmured into the darkness. »We were … How old were we even? I can't remember.«

»Eight.« Klaus suddenly chimed up. His voice was low and his gaze distant as he stared at something across the room from them, as if he was staring at another person sitting on his mattress. He should better not think about that too much. The thought that dead people were always watching them was creeping him out. »We were eight. You, Ben and I shared a tent. Vanya and Allison too, and poor Five had to bunk with Luther because Dad knew you and Luther would try to kill each other before the week would be over.«

»Yeah« Diego chuckled and pulled him closer, tucking Klaus’ curly mop of hair under his chin. »That was the beginning of the ‘even numbers squad’.« That was how Vanya had dubbed them from then on, at least. »Oh God … that trip was a real shitshow, wasn't it? I remember how it started to rain on the second day and wouldn't stop for the entire rest of the week. A storm nearly whisked our tent away and we knew that Dad wouldn't have cared and would have forced us to sleep outside then. It was survival training, after all. The old bastard never cared if we would get mauled by a bear or something.«

»I kinda liked it.« Klaus muttered quietly into the darkness. Diego had always liked the dark and the night, unlike Klaus. To Diego, this was a magical time, however. Only the night brought forth long kept secrets whispered into the darkness. »We were out of this house, out of his reach … All alone and it was so quiet out there.« No ghosts. That's what he meant to say and Diego understood him just fine without Klaus having to say it.

»I suppose it had its good sides.« Diego hummed and closed his eyes shortly, relishing in the memory even though back then he had been horrified and desperate to get home. »But I admit, I was terrified out there. And I was thankful that Ben was too because I could act all tough and protective of you guys. It was easier this way, it gave me something to focus my mind on. Well, I guess, I was more afraid that I wouldn't be able to get you guys home safely again … I always felt more like a big brother and big brothers protect their younger siblings.«

»We are the same age.«

»Doesn't matter.« Diego huffed. »Never mattered. I was responsible for you guys. Same as Luther. And there I was, eight years old and scared of the dark forest around us, terrified a bear or a wolf would come and get my brothers right from underneath my nose. I don't know if I would have survived to live in this house for so long without you or Ben.«

Diego was almost sure that Klaus had fallen asleep as silence began to settle over them and he was actually fine with the idea of sleeping huddled together in that tent. Klaus, however, gave a small nod at one point and leaned in closer, searching his warmth, perhaps. Surely, he was freezing again.

»I remember« He began quietly, much quieter than before and his words sounded slurred almost. »being poked with needles every day. I remember how I begged Dad to let me come home. I begged everyone to let me go home. I promised to stop using drugs. I promised I would be better. I promised to take my training more seriously. And they told me I would go home when I would have beaten my addiction. And so I did. And they poked me with needles and told me I didn't.«

His brain seemed so scattered and muddled. It was hard to tell what of this story was true or not or what he meant with those words. He probably didn't know it himself. His mind lay in shambles and it seemed to be an impossible task to gather the puzzle pieces and stick them back together.

»And then Dad stopped showing up and I started to realize that I would never go home. He decided to let me rot there, he forsook me. And I … I didn't want to be there. I wanted to go home or at least not be there anymore. So I began hiding my pills from them until I thought I had enough. Turned out it wasn’t enough … And they used it against me. Told me I was too unstable to even consider letting me go. I asked them if I could write letters and they allowed it, so I did. But then the letters came back unopened and I slit my wrists with a letter opener I stole from my doctor.«

Diego felt bile rising in his throat. He wanted to punch something. He wanted that Klaus would stop talking. What kind of monster would discard their kid like this in a mental asylum and not even open the letters said kid wrote them? Oh right, _Sir_ Reginald Hargreeves would do something like this.

»I wanted to go home so badly … I even wanted to start my training up again. I told Dad in my letters. I wanted to leave that place. I wanted to see you again, and the others, But they wouldn't let me. They wouldn't even let me out of my room. And I started to … I started to forget things. I didn't know my own name half the time. I’m still not sure if I am really here. Maybe this is just one more of their experiments. They are testing me … Always testing and prodding. And Ben said I should tell you … But I don't know how.«

Ben?

Diego followed Klaus’ gaze again to the mattress but there still was nothing Diego could see. Then again … Ben was dead so why shouldn't Klaus see their dead brother?

»Is Ben here now?«

»He says hi.« Klaus mumbled. »He says I need to tell you everything, but I don't know what he means. I can't remember … My head is stuffed with cotton and I don't- I’m not sure what’s real. I’m not sure what really happened and what was just in my head.«

There was no time to think about what he was doing as he pressed his lips to Klaus’ head briefly. »We’ll figure it out.« He whispered into his curls, telling himself that this little kiss was just a brotherly gesture of affection, that it didn't have anything to do with Klaus per se. »You’ll see. We’ll figure everything out. You’re home now. You’re safe.«

»I hurt Vanya.« Klaus sobbed suddenly and he sounded heartbroken at the thought that he had done something so horrible to their mousy little sister who couldn't defend herself.

»You did. And Luther too … They forgive you, don't worry. They know that this wasn't really you.« He could say as much as he wanted that Luther and Vanya had already forgiven him and yet, his brother would never believe him. Diego knew this and he knew exactly what this felt like too. Klaus might not be able to understand everything that was going on at the moment, he might be lost in his own mind and not sure who he really was, but deep down he felt guilty for what he did to his siblings and that kind of guilt stayed with a person.

Nevertheless, Klaus seemed to relax in his arms as Diego tightened his grip around him. He didn't wish to disrupt the comfortable closeness he had going on with Klaus, not after such a long time of Diego thinking he was dead and gone forever, but the cold air of the last February days was creeping in on them and Klaus still needed time to heal and recover and first and foremost he needed a warm nest to retreat back to.

»Come on.« He mumbled as he slowly coaxed Klaus to leave the tent. »As much as I like it in here … we should go to sleep.« He could feel Klaus tense up in his arms right away and he could only assume why. At least he didn't have to pry this time.

»Can I sleep in your bed?« Klaus asked, his voice almost timid and - Oh God - how he missed his loud-mouthed witty brother. He missed the Klaus who had always had a joke on his lips. He missed the Klaus who had always succeeded in making everyone laugh. He missed his smiles and his full body laughter, his wit and his sarcasm and his humor. He missed the Klaus who would just come into his room and flop down on him without question because he wanted attention. This timid version of his brother was just wrong and twisted and he _hated_ it.

»Sure.« Diego smiled and let Klaus crawl out first. In the end, Diego shoved their mattresses together and it wasn't long after that he found Klaus next to him, buried under a mountain of blankets. It was much too warm for Diego’s taste but Klaus seemed content and that was really all that mattered at that moment. »What happened with Vanya anyway? Why did you attack her?«

»I don't know.« Klaus mumbled tiredly. »I just … freaked.« The sound that escaped Klaus’ throat sounded almost strangled and small. It was not like anything Diego had ever heard coming out of his brother's mouth. »Suddenly … Suddenly, she was no longer Vanya, you know?«

»Who was she?«

»A demon.« He sounded completely convinced of his words and of what he thought to have seen out in the yard. »She looked like the monsters in my room … Always yelling and screaming at me … I didn't know what I was doing.«

»And Luther? Why did you attack him?«

»He wanted to hurt you.« Simple as that. Of course, Diego had assumed something like this but not dared to believe that this might actually be true. His heart clenched in his chest. »He was angry and he yelled and he was so, so loud…«

»Thank you … for wanting to defend me. But next time … No biting, okay? Biting is just … rude.«

※※※※※※※

Allison and Luther had gotten Klaus new painting supplies. When Klaus had left the house for the asylum, he had been forced to leave everything behind, of course, and all his paints had soon dried up or been thrown away by their father without a care for what the other kids might feel about that. To Diego, it had been a sacrilege what his father did. Changing just this one thing about Klaus’ bedroom had felt like a huge crime to him. He had been desecrating Klaus’ memory.

And yet, Allison and Luther had bought Klaus new paints, new brushes and a couple of new canvases. This morning, they all had had breakfast together and Klaus had told them about art therapy and how it had helped him to focus his mind before he hadn't been allowed to go there anymore every day. To Diego, it was almost like those people hadn't wanted Klaus to get better in any way.

Luther had helped to set up Klaus’ old easel in the living room after he and Allison returned to the house in the afternoon and to nobody's surprise, he started painting right away while the rest of them gathered around the bar. Klaus was wearing his old headphones, playing his old favorite tape on his old walkman and everything seemed as it was supposed to be - as if he had never even left this house in the first place. Diego was almost entranced by looking at Klaus paint, to the effect that he almost didn't realize what Allison was saying.

»Diego?« Vanya brushed a hand over his arm and would have startled him if the touch had not been so light and gentle.

»What?«

»I said, I did it.« Allison repeated with a soft smile playing on her face as if she knew exactly what was going on inside his head. She had two days to cool down after the incident with Vanya in the yard and even though she had spent those two days avoiding Klaus like the plague, she seemed to come around again. Diego was certain that Vanya had something to do with that. »I think the police will soon stop searching for Klaus and you. I made sure they would inform the police that there has been a mistake, a mix-up with the files and that Klaus Hargreeves has been released officially shortly after Dad’s funeral.«

»That doesn't sound very believable, though.« Diego replied right away and Allison rolled her eyes impatiently.

»What was I supposed to say? Nothing I would have been able to make them believe would have sounded very logical. At least this way _they_ will look like the idiots and not the police.« Knowing the police force like the back of his hand, Diego knew that they were always eager to shift blame on someone else. »And you of all people should know the best how the police operate, right? They will be glad to be able to drop this case.«

»Not Eudora.« Diego sighed. »She will know what's up.« But would she still go after them? She knew his story. She knew how much Klaus meant to him. She would probably come over to talk to him about the situation and the weird new developments but she would probably leave him alone after that. Knowing Eudora, she would probably just be happy for Diego that he got his brother back. Maybe she had always known that there was more going on under the surface. She probably knew more than he was willing to admit to himself.

»You should make sure that she’s not gonna be a problem then.« Five drawled from where he was sitting at the bar with a margarita in his hands and some mannequin he had found somewhere and propped up on the countertop. In all honesty, Diego didn't even want to know what was going on there.

»Don't worry.« He sighed. »She won't be a problem.« Even though Eudora was known to never let go of something after she would have buried her teeth into a topic. Maybe she would drop it for him.

»So what now?« Luther asked finally and as Diego looked at him, he noticed that his brother’s eyes were fixed on Klaus’ back, watching their Number Four intently as if he was almost expecting Klaus to flip his shit and attack them with a paintbrush any second now. Klaus seemed content, though. It was hard to tell what was going on inside his head but he seemed better. Today was one of his good days, Diego assumed. Maybe they could try to go on another walk later now that the police wouldn't be searching for them any longer. Maybe he could drive Klaus to that donut shop they used to visit as kids on the rare occasions when they had actually been allowed to leave the house.

»Now we … Watch him?« Allison proposed. »I mean I guess we should watch him like we would watch a toddler?«

»You mean we should set up a babysitter system.« Vanya chuckled half amused by the idea and half serious.

»Yeah, kind of. I mean, I guess he will be spending most of his time with Diego anyways?« That smirk on Allison’s lips and the knowing look in his sister’s eyes disturbed him just a bit. »Since they are joined at the hips these days.«

»It's not my fault he likes me best.« Diego rolled his eyes. Not to mention that Allison had stated how afraid she was of their brother just the other day. Of course, Diego would much rather keep an eye on Klaus 24/7 anyway these days and didn't like the idea of leaving him out of his sight. But there was still his vigilante work, right? He missed it. And he missed having time to actually do his work out routine. Luther had already challenged him to spar again or to go running every morning together. No matter how tense their relationship might be, Diego felt tempted to agree, just because he knew how unhealthy it would be for both him and Klaus to keep spending their time together as they had been.

»We need to help him return to reality.« Vanya smiled then, a fimble attempt of getting their siblings to be a little more serious again. »And we need to be careful and gentle with him for that. He seemed to like it when I played for him. He was calm then. And no matter what Diego does when he is around Klaus, he seems calm then too. He needs stability now and freedom.«

»We can't let him run loose.« Luther shot back right away.

»That's not what she meant.« Diego cut off their Number One right away. »She just meant that we can't be locking him up again as they did in the asylum. He needs to be able to roam this house on his own volition at least. We need to show him that we are not chaining him up or locking him in and that we trust him not to do something stupid.« Of course, that all sounded way easier than it actually would be and Diego knew this. All of this had much to do with letting go and Diego was not one to let go of anything ever. »And we need to allow him to go out into the real world again too. Baby steps, though.«

He could tell by the way Luther looked at him that he was not very fond of the idea, not that Diego would care. And he didn't care either later that same day in the afternoon when he led Klaus out of the house and to his ratty old car with Five and Vanya in tow coming after them. It felt odd, this little family outing but for once, Diego wasn't sure if he would have preferred it to go alone with Klaus or not. Maybe it was good that Five and Vanya were there too. Just having Five around seemed to make it easier for Klaus to find an anchor in reality.

Five seemed a bit hesitant at first as Diego told him that they were headed to Griddy’s Doughnuts but he didn't voice any objections and just popped into the car. The donut shop still looked the same as Diego remembered it as he parked his car on the street on the other side of the road. As they walked over, Klaus kept close to him and Diego was almost tempted to wrap his arm around him. He didn't though. It would be weird for him to do so. For just a moment, Diego thought he could see a group of seven children sitting in one of the booths of the donut shop, laughing together, slurping milkshakes and eating junk food.

Oh heck, he was growing soft with age. Then again, he would turn thirty in October. Maybe he was allowed to be a bit of a softie.

The waitress gave them a weird look as they entered the establishment, perhaps because they were three adults with a kid in tow, none of them looking even slightly related. Or it could be because she had possibly seen Klaus’ face all over the news by this time. They chose the booth farthest away from the door and Diego made sure to tuck Klaus into the corner next to Diego while Vanya and Five sat down on the other side.

Klaus seemed nervous the way he played with the string of his hoodie that he had gotten from Diego. Even leaving the house had seemed to make him fidgety and nervous. He had been looking over his shoulder with every step they had taken on the short trip from the kitchen door to Diego’s crappy old car. Maybe Diego had not done him a favor in getting him out of the stuffy old house. Maybe he should have laid low for a bit longer, after all, Allison had gone to the hospital only earlier this same day. And yet, Vanya had encouraged him and so it was at least half her fault, he guessed.

In the end, Diego ordered Klaus his favorite milkshakes and waffles while the rest of them stuck to donuts. Klaus had always been more of the waffles kind of guy.

※※※※※※※

He felt uncomfortable out here in the real world. Then again, what even was real? It was so hard to tell and the ghosts surrounding him at all times didn't make it any easier for him to tell either. And neither did the presence of Five at the table across from him. Diego helped, though. Diego and looking at the mirror again and again. Being close to Diego seemed to put his mind on ease and to quiet the spirits around him even though they were still lingering always in his peripheral. Number Two was like his personal human shield against the demons surrounding him.

He might not be able to see them but his mere presence was enough for them to not get closer and leave him at peace at least this once as a nervous looking waitress placed a stack of waffles in front of him on the table together with a nice chocolate milkshake. Sometimes it was a bit much having all his siblings around him again after such long a time. Especially since they were all so eager to feed him all the time.

»We can get you something else if you don't want it.« Vanya chimed up and only then he noticed how silent their table had gotten. Had he spaced out again? He seemed to be losing time every now and again. He would sit somewhere and get lost in his own head. How much time had passed since the waitress came to them?

»No … No, it's perfect.« He was still not used to using his voice for anything than screaming in terror. The fingers grabbing his fork were trembling as the metal was so heavy in his hand. He would be able to poke out an eye with it. He would maybe be able to stab someone with the knife lying on the table. He could ram it down Five’s throat or through his eye … he could slit his own throat. It gleamed so sharply in the neon light of the shop.

Diego gave his shoulder a small squeeze and had he not, perhaps Klaus would have done something horrible again. It was hard to tell what he might have done. Finally, he started to dig in even though he was almost afraid of the taste. He didn't know when he had last eaten something like this. Everyone was staring at him as he started eating the waffles and he would have found it funny a lifetime ago, now, however, he just felt more self-conscious. The presence of his siblings was almost suffocating.

They seemed so invested in watching him eat all the time - or watching him in general. He was used to being watched and observed, of course, but it didn't make it any better. Sometimes he wanted to shout at them. They had never cared much about him, after all. None of them had cared how badly he was doing.

Diego was not like this, though. He didn't watch him eat but rather took to his own donuts and milkshake until he probably felt Klaus’ eyes on him and held out his jelly donut he had just bitten into, offering it to Klaus like he always used to when they were kids and just like back then, Klaus took the offer and took a bite from the donut. It was so easy to fall back into his old habits around Diego even though sometimes he looked at the other man and still saw a stranger in him. But then there were times like this when he would look at Diego and see the boy in him he once knew. The boy who always shared his food or snacks with Klaus to make him try out something new. Then again, out of the seven children, Ben had always been the pickiest eater.  

After first getting into the hospital, he had so often screamed for him and Ben and wished for Diego or Ben to come and get him. He remembered screaming his lungs out for any of his siblings but mostly Diego. Always Diego. He remembered being tied down. He remembered being drugged and losing days at once.

The door to the shop opened and two people in suits walked in, a woman with dark skin and a much bigger man. He could hear the man complaining about his wrist hurting as they walked over to another booth on the other side of the room. Only shortly, Klaus met the eyes of the woman before she sat down with her back to him.

»I’m sorry, Vanya.« Klaus finally turned to his sister and as she looked at him in surprise, he pointed at her throat. »For attacking you … I don't know what happened…«

»It's okay.« Vanya smiled reaching out to him over the table and placing a soft hand on his. »It's okay. Nothing happened. I get it. It can't be easy to be back home again. It must have been hard to be alone for such a long time in this awful place.«

»I wasn't alone.« He found himself saying.

»What?«

»I had Dave.« Pure, perfect, kind, beautiful, gentle Dave. His Dave.

»Who’s Dave?« Diego chimed up with new found interest and as Klaus looked at his brother, he could see something else in his eyes that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Briefly, he thought about that one night he had shared with Diego behind the bar in the living room, exchanging heated and yet oddly innocent kisses in the dark of the night.

»Dave was … He was the only person I ever loved more than myself.« Except for Diego. But he couldn't say that. It wasn't right. He remembered people telling him that it wasn't right. He remembered electricity shooting through his body when he told his doctor that he loved his brother in such a way. »He was kind and gentle and beautiful. I would have followed him everywhere.«

Diego’s gaze darkened as he focused on his own milkshake and pulled it over to take a sip. Vanya, however, urged him to continue talking. »What happened with Dave?«

»He died.« Klaus shrugged his shoulders. »He killed himself. I don't remember much of that, though … I remember being locked up in a straightjacket for a while and when I was allowed to return to the other patients, Dave was gone.«

As he looked across the room, he saw Ben again, sitting on the counter behind which the waitress was working, his feet dangling in the air, a smile on his face as he met Klaus’ gaze. And for just a second, Klaus was almost sure that he was seeing another man right behind Ben, clad in a dusty old military uniform. He couldn't see him clearly, though, he was fuzzy on the outlines and then he was gone.

»I’m sorry.« Vanya muttered quietly and Five gave an agreeing little hum. Diego, however, just took his hand in his as it laid uselessly on the table. There might be much unsaid between them but at least his brother was still here for him and he would probably always be here for him.

Later that same night, Klaus found himself snuggling closer to Diego again on their makeshift beds. Diego was already fast asleep and his deep breathing made Klaus feel calmer at once as well. In the dim light of the one string of fairy lights Diego had allowed to continue to be on throughout the night, he could see his face quite clearly. Looking at him closely, he could still see his seventeen-year-old brother but the soft edges to his face had been smoothed out and hardened with time. His eyes, though, were still the same.

He didn't know and didn't understand why he wasn't allowed to sleep in his old room anymore but up here they were sleeping under a blanket of stars with the moon the only witness to how Klaus was gently tracing his fingers over the sharp edge of Diego’s jawline before he rested his head right above his heart.

 

**-End of Chapter 11-**


	12. Chapter 12

_Dave’s smile was like the sun shining through a cloudy window on a rainy day. He had those adorable dimples when he smiled and his blue eyes would light up with complete joy. The truth was, Klaus couldn’t even remember if he had ever seen such joy in anyone’s eyes ever before he met Dave. Certainly not in the eyes of his siblings and who else was there that mattered looking back on his young life?_

_Sometimes, Klaus wasn’t sure if Dave’s eyes were blue or grey, except for when he sat down to sketch him on the few pieces of paper he would be allowed to use to sketch on by Nurse Parker. When he would ask her for paper, she would purse her lips and knot her eyebrows together almost painfully. On good days she would then reach in one of the drawers of her desk at the nurse’s office and hand him a small stack and a dull pencil, on bad days she would send him away with a threat of locking him in his room if he would bother her again. These days, he spent most of his days in the rec room sketching the other patients - but most of the time he would sketch Dave._

_»Who’s that?« Dave asked as he leaned over from where he was sitting next to him on the couch in front of the rabbit ear TV. A cartoon was running and a couple of the other patients sat on the ground right in front of it, captivated by the children's program. Not that there would ever be anything other than cartoons running on that television anyway. And even those cartoons were sometimes a little too exciting for some of the other patients._

_Dave smelled heavenly like soap and, oddly enough, coconut. If Klaus would be allowed to, he would lean in and lean against Dave, enjoying the way Dave would wrap those strong arms around him without any care in the world. It wasn’t as if Klaus Hargreeves cared much about the rules. Usually, he would just do whatever he wanted to do. However, since he met Dave, everything was different. He tried to behave so that his time with the other man wouldn't be cut short. Despite all the horrors he had to endure on a daily basis, Dave was the light in his bleakest days that made it all just a bit more bearable._

_»That's my brother.« Klaus replied with a crooked little smile as he met Dave’s eyes and caught the other man stealing a glance at his sketch. He had the paper lying against a book propped up against his raised knees for more stability._

_»Diego?« There was a little tease buried deep inside Dave’s voice. Maybe he shouldn't have told him about Diego and his crush on his own brother. Yet, Dave had not judged him as he told him. He had just smiled and pulled him closer in one of those few stolen moments they got every now and then when they would lock themselves into a supply closet or an unused therapy room._

_He could almost still feel Dave’s warm skin against his own, hear the heavy panting of the older man as he came down from the orgasm they had shared in mutual pleasure. He had told Dave about Diego and his crush on him because he felt as if he could tell Dave anything without being judged or without Dave recoiling in disgust. His doctor would claim that it was wrong of Klaus to feel this way for his brother but he would explain it away right afterward. He would claim that it wasn’t quite Klaus’ fault for falling for his own brother after being locked in this house for most of his life and only seeing his siblings. That was, of course, bullshit._

_»Yeah.« Klaus hummed, heat rising in his cheeks as Dave took the sketch from him carefully. He had drawn Diego exactly how he remembered him, just his face and his neck down to his collarbones, even added that very prominent scar to the right side of his head. Diego shouldn't have allowed him to try out throwing his knives. Well, they had both learned a very valuable lesson on that day._

_»Well, I get why you had a crush on him.« Dave teased with a smile. And, oh God, how much he wanted to lean over and kiss him! Klaus was desperate for the taste of Dave’s lips and his tongue and his skin and … Well, soon. They would soon get another chance, he assumed._

_»Who said I ever stopped having a crush on him?« Klaus teased back and forced a chuckle out of Dave’s throat in the process._

_»Ouch! I think I am getting jealous here.«_

_»Don't. Diego was the first guy I fell in love with at the tender age of thirteen, Baby, but you are the one I love now.«_

_Love was such a big word but it felt true when he was looking at Dave now. He loved that man with all his heart. One day, Klaus told himself, they would get out of this hellhole, some way or another and they would start somewhere else, somewhere new. They would build a home for themselves, adopt a couple of dogs._

_Dave loved big dogs. He had grown up with dogs on a farm somewhere in Minnesota. They would get a Husky and a German Shepherd and Klaus would demand to have a Corgi just for shits and giggles and Dave would probably give in and adopt one for him. They would celebrate the holidays together and he would introduce Dave to Diego. He would have the two men he loved the most in this world together in one room. And yet, Diego never came to see him. Diego never visited._

_»I love you too, Gremlin.« Dave huffed and gave him back the sketch. Only shortly, Klaus glanced down on the paper, admiring his work. He felt a stab in his heart at the thought of Diego out there somewhere. How long was it since he had last seen him? For how long was he already here? And what if something had happened to his brother on a mission? He was so desperate for any sign of life from Diego._

_»One day, I want you to meet him.« Klaus mumbled. »And Vanya and the others too. And Mom and-« The words died on his tongue as he looked up and saw Dave’s eyes drained of light. The room was greyer all of the sudden as if a dark cloud had shoved itself in front of the sun outside of the window._

_The other patients were but lifeless corpses crawling over the floor. Forgotten was the cartoon that was still running. They were crawling towards him in sluggish movements, already extending their claws in his direction. Klaus quickly pulled up his naked feet on the cushion of the sofa. He could hear the static from the TV blaring in his skull as he tried to get away from the dead on the ground. There was blood pooling out of Dave’s mouth and a gaping hole in his chest._

_He was no longer wearing the white patient uniform Klaus hated so much but an old dusty beige army uniform. His name was stitched above the front pocket of his vest and a set of dog tags dangling around his neck, glistening in the light of a fire somewhere behind Klaus. His cheeks were dirty and behind him, explosions were going off, people were screaming and no matter where Klaus was looking, the soldiers among them died like flies._

_He would die too if he wouldn't run and he thought to embrace it. What a wonderful thought that was, to die here in the trenches with the love of his life while he could still hear Woody Woodpecker over the sound of gunfire and the agonizing screams of the mortally wounded._

_Instead of running, he pulled Dave into a crushing embrace and pressed his lips against his forehead. He couldn't hear his own screams for the medic to come and save Dave. He was already dead and yet he screamed until his lungs burned and his voice died._

※※※※※※※

Never in his life had Diego Hargreeves heard anyone scream with that much agony and desperation during a nightmare as in this night. Klaus was thrashing on the mattress next to him, kicking and punching and screaming as if trying to fight off an invisible assailant who tried holding him down.

»No, no, no, no, no!« It physically pained him to hear the heartbreak in his brother’s sobs. Diego didn't waste any more time as he already heard the heavy footfalls of Luther running towards the staircase one floor down. He crawled over to Klaus and took hold of his shoulders to press him into the mattress.

»Klaus!« He yelled to make himself heard over Klaus’ own screaming and his agonized terror. »Klaus, wake up! It's just a bad dream! Come on, wake up!«

»Medic!« Klaus screamed and his voice broke around the edges as he did. »Medic!«

»What the hell, Diego?« Luther’s voice boomed and would have startled him if he hadn't already heard the big oaf coming for them in just his pajamas, alarm written clearly all over his face and ready to attack whoever needed attacking. »He’s going to wake up the whole house!«

»No shit, Sherlock!« Diego growled. »Don't just stand there! Help me hold him down!« Hopefully, his brother would not crush Klaus with his body. Luther seemed to possess enough common sense though as he hurried over and crouched down on the foot of the mattress to push Klaus’ legs down in the mattress that were still kicking.

»Klaus, wake up!« Diego tried again. He didn't want to shake him but, in the end, he was forced to give him the tiniest slap. That, at least, seemed to do the trick as Klaus ripped open his eyes wide as saucers.

His heartbeat was going rapid underneath Diego’s hand as he pressed his left hand down on his chest to keep Klaus down for a moment longer. He was breathing ragged and desperate to fill his lungs with just the tiniest amount of air that he could get in and his eyes were beyond panicked as he looked up at Diego. For a moment, Diego was sure that Klaus was actually scared of him but then he seemed to relax just enough under Diego’s pressure.

»It's okay.« Diego mumbled. »You are safe, I got you. It was just a bad dream.«

Diego would have expected Luther to leave as Diego released the pressure from Klaus’ chest only to have his brother shoot upright and throw himself at Diego right away. Luther seemed a bit uncomfortable as Diego was cradling their brother to his chest like a scared child and as he slowly rose to his feet, Diego thought he would leave again now that the situation had been dealt with. Instead, Luther went over to the light switch and switched on the rest of the fairy lights only to walk back to them slowly. By now, Klaus was clawing at the front of Diego’s shirt and he could feel the moisture seeping through the thin fabric. The agonized sobs Klaus let out of his throat were worse than anything Diego had ever heard before in his life and tore at his heartstrings so badly that he wanted to storm out.

Looking at Luther, he seemed to feel the same way.

»It was just a bad dream.« Diego repeated quietly into Klaus’ hair as he pressed a kiss to his curls. Unlike Luther, Diego had always been a lot more handsy with their siblings though not to the same extent as Klaus, who would throw himself at his siblings, curl up on their laps or snuggle up to them without a care in the world.

»How about … hot chocolate?« Luther finally mumbled awkwardly from the sidelines. »Mom said hot chocolate calms the nerves.«

»Yeah…« Diego huffed. »Good idea. Go ask her. I don't want you to burn down the house.« It was clear that Luther wanted to leave them alone for a moment to gather themselves and he actually appreciated it that his brother for once had the decency to think about that. Luther left with a small nod and Klaus finally stopped sobbing. However, it could be that he only stopped because his voice wouldn't allow him to make any noise anymore. He carded his fingers through Klaus’ curls gently over and over again, feeling how he was slowly calming down as he was trying to take one shaky breath after the other.

»Hey … you back with me?«

There was just a small nod coming from Klaus that prompted Diego to pull away just slightly only to have Klaus pull him in again instead, burying his face into Diego’s neck as Diego tucked his head under his chin. It was obvious that he wanted to be close to Diego and that he needed the comfort his brother could provide him. He couldn't deny that he felt good realizing how much Klaus needed him at that moment. It was probably wrong to feel that way. He needed to be careful not to get too carried away by that feeling.

»How about a trip to the kitchen and see if Luther has called Mom or destroyed everything?« Again a tiny nod before Diego helped his brother to his feet. Klaus kept close to his side as they walked to the door and Diego was all too happy to put his arm around Klaus and pulled him even closer to his side, feeling with amazement how Klaus melted into his body while they walked down the stairs and towards the kitchen.

He could already hear Mom humming to herself and smell the hot chocolate as they slowly came closer to the open doorway. In the kitchen, he found that Luther had brought in a knitted blanket from the couch in the living room and as soon as Diego maneuvered Klaus to sit at the table, Luther actually put the blanket around his shoulders before sitting down at his usual spot at the table, looking even more awkward and out of place than usual.

»Luther told me you had a bad dream.« Mom hummed as she brought over three cups of delicious hot chocolate only to press a kiss to Klaus’ temple. »You know the best remedy for those screaming meanies is hot chocolate, Darling, so drink up.«

Being around Mom seemed to help Klaus these days. It was an anchor in reality, something that hadn't changed like Five and this house and Pogo. At the same time, this might actually be a problem for Klaus as well. How would he be able to come back to reality and finally get a grasp of what had happened to him when he would be confronted by reminders of the past being around him constantly.  

Klaus actually smiled at Grace, though. It might be a bit shaky and unsteady but it was a genuine smile before he grabbed his mug and took a careful sip. Only then Mom finally left the kitchen, brushing her hand over Diego’s shoulder lovingly on her way out. Diego moved over to the table slowly and finally sat down next to Klaus at his usual spot. He was already tempted again to put an arm around Klaus’ thin shoulders but, under Luther's scrutinizing gaze, he instead just grabbed his mug and took a sip of his own hot chocolate.

»Are you feeling better?« Luther asked after a long moment of pause and cleared his throat as quietly as he could. He was still so awkward when he tried to behave like a normal person it was ridiculous! His brother seemed utterly unable to make a normal conversation. Every time Luther had to confront a situation that differed a bit from the norm, he sounded so stilted and rehearsed. Klaus didn't seem to mind though. Instead, Klaus just grabbed Diego’s free hand as it was lying uselessly on the table. First, he was a bit startled by the action in front of their brother but it didn't take long for Diego to realize that Klaus needed the comfort of feeling something steady and living to ground himself in reality.

And, fuck it, Diego certainly didn't mind it as Klaus started absentmindedly to play with his fingers.

»A bit.« He mumbled and drove his free hand through his unruly curls with a sigh after putting down his own mug. »Sorry for making so much noise.«

»Not your fault.« Diego shrugged. »You just had a bad dream, that's it.«

»I remember you used to have nightmares often when we were younger.« Luther was quick to add. »And Dad told us not to bother with you.«

»Luther-«

»I just wanna say how sorry I am for doing as he said.« Luther cut him off and reached over the table to take hold of Klaus’ other hand. In his giant paw, it looked as if Luther could break Klaus’ fingers with just closing his own too tightly. »I’m your brother and I should have protected you and I should have made sure that you were alright and I should have consoled you when you needed someone to listen to you.«

»Oh … geez.« Klaus muttered under his breath and Diego could see how Klaus cast his eyes down at the mug, clearly a little embarrassed by Luther's words. »No reason to go all schmaltzy on me now, Baby.«

Was this a hint of his brother Klaus buried deep inside this gaunt, haunted-looking young man?

»What did you dream about?« Luther quickly decided to change the topic as he retracted his hand and quickly closed both his hands around his own mug instead. »Do you remember?«

»Only vaguely.« Klaus shrugged. »I was back at the asylum with Dave and then-«

»Then?«

»Then Dave died.« Klaus tried to sound nonchalant but Diego had been there when Klaus had this nightmare. He had been completely out of control, panicked and desperate and heartbroken and Diego hated that he felt jealous of a dead person because this Dave-guy had gotten what Diego had never dared to take. Had he been a little less under the control of their father, maybe Klaus would have never overdosed and maybe they would have run away together.

»What happened to Dave?« Luther asked before Diego could. Perhaps because he wanted to torture Diego with letting Klaus speak about the man he once loved. Maybe to prove a point to Diego. »I mean … Not in your dream, in reality. Tell us about him.« And for once in his life, Luther actually sounded interested and compassionate. He sounded like he truly cared for once.

»Dave came to the asylum a couple of years after I got there. It's all so muddy and hard to tell apart now. Half the time I didn't know how much time passed. It must have been before we turned twenty, though.« He shrugged. »One morning he was suddenly there. He just sat there in the mess hall with a book and as he looked at me for the first time I felt like the world was turning upside down.« He huffed with a hint of red creeping into his cheeks.

»We hit it off right away. I never experienced anything like this. Within days we were inseparable and I felt …   _good_. I can't remember much about those twelve years, everything is bleeding together into one big pile of mush. I don't even know if I am really here at last or still rotting in the asylum. But I remember how good I felt being with Dave. He made me laugh and let me forget the ghosts. He believed me and he listened to me and he was so … patient and kind and loving.«

Diego had a hard time not getting up and leaving. Instead, he grabbed his mug harder, aware of the look Luther shot him. Prick. How would he feel if Allison would be sitting here and telling him about her ex-husband and how much she had loved him? Fuck. He was in too deep already. It was about time he would get some distance between himself and Klaus, maybe pick up his vigilante work soon. The good people of this city were not saving themselves, after all.

»He was three years older than me when we met and he was _gorgeous_. I always had a thing for ripped dudes, of course.« He managed a small grin that almost looked like his old smiles and Cheshire grins. It didn't quite reach his eyes though. »I could tell him everything without being judged. Even my doctors said that I had improved since Dave was there.«

»Why was he there?« Diego managed to get through his teeth. He would rather be a part of this conversation instead of just being an idle listener.

»He thought he was a soldier during the Vietnam war.« Klaus shrugged. »He had an accident during his military training and since then he had this delusion. And then he killed himself.« Klaus lowered his gaze again and shrugged his shoulders once more, curling in on himself just a tiny bit more than usual but didn't stop playing with Diego’s fingers. »He hung himself in his cell. I never thought … He wasn't the type. And yet he did it.«

»Sometimes it's hard for us to realize what is truly going on in a person’s head.« Luther mumbled. »At least you got to experience this with him even though it didn't last.«

As their eyes met across the table, Diego wanted to punch Luther.

※※※※※※※

It was late afternoon when the doorbell was ringing. Diego let out a groan and opened his eyes again. Would he be younger, he would feel dumb sitting cross-legged on the carpet of their living room on a pillow to meditate. However, Diego was almost thirty years old and since he was getting old, he was allowed to do old people things. Not to mention that it seemed to actually calm Klaus down.

Unlike him, Klaus had not even pried open one eye. He just sat there, cross-legged on his own pillow across from Diego, his face bathed in the light of the slowly sinking sun outside and his hands calmly resting in his lap. He was less twitchy since they started meditating together and Diego could only hope that it would help Klaus in the long run as well - especially at night. He really didn't need another night like the last one.

Diego listened in on how one of his siblings was making their way to the front door. They had all agreed not to disturb Klaus and Diego when they were trying this meditation thing even though Luther had snorted about the idea initially. Not long after the doorbell had rung, he heard footsteps coming towards the living room and as he glanced at the archway, he saw Five standing there with a cup of coffee, behind him none other than Eudora Patch who’s eyes rested not on Diego but Klaus instead. He didn't even have the energy to look guiltily at her.

»So, apparently, Klaus Hargreeves has been released from the Ashcroft Sanatorium on the same day your father’s funeral took place and there was just some very _odd_ mix up with another patient by a similar name.« Eudora stated with raised brows and crossed arms after Diego had led her outside into the yard and farther away from prying ears. »Not to mention, that's the same Klaus Hargreeves you told me had killed himself when you guys were seventeen.«

»So funny story-«

»Diego.« Her voice was sharp as she looked at him next. »Spare me your lies and just tell me what's up. My colleagues dropped the case like a hot potato when they got the call from the asylum. But you owe me an explanation at the very least.«

He sighed and sat down on the stone bench near Ben’s statue. »Where do I even start?«

»At the beginning.« He rolled his eyes at her cliche answer.

»So, what I told you back in the day was true. I thought he had killed himself. Our father told us that he killed himself after Klaus overdosed. He wanted to get rid of Klaus without having him be an embarrassment for the family out in the streets. Good old Reggie only cared about his own reputation.« He shrugged. »When Dad died, we found out what really happened and I-«

»You broke him out. I figured as much.« Eudora sighed before she sat down next to him and put her hand on his left forearm right at the same spot Diego was hiding his tattoo underneath his long sleeves. »I just wonder what happened then.«

»My sister, Allison went there and convinced them that they had released Klaus and got his file confused or something. That's sorta her superpower.«

»To manipulate people?« He snorted and bit back a laugh. Oh, Eudora had no idea how true that was. »Anyway, Diego … I am glad that you got your brother back. I really am. I know how much he meant to you and now you got a second chance, right?« She smiled. »Use it this time. But please be careful. The original info I got on your brother was that he was dangerous and I know that you don't like to believe that. He is your brother and all. But just … Just keep that in mind, okay?«

He gave a small nod and allowed himself to let his gaze wander across the courtyard. Klaus was so much more than just his brother and Eudora probably knew that too. She was just too polite and kind to bring it up now.

»I just wished I could help him a little more.« Diego then admitted. Sure, their father’s funeral had been barely two weeks ago and Klaus was with him only for a couple of days but he felt as if it was a lifetime already and as if he was failing his brother.

»It will take time, Diego.« She smiled and kissed his cheek before he even knew what was happening. »Give him time and, eventually, he will come around. Until then, just be there for him, catch him when he falls - and no more vigilante work.«  She added with a laugh before she got back to her feet to leave Diego to brood. Diego only gave her a mischievous little smile. She knew just as well as Diego that this was not going to happen.

In fact, it was that very same night that Diego dawned his domino mask again and slipped out of the house without anyone noticing. He felt bad leaving Klaus behind like this. However, he had promised himself not to be gone for longer than two hours. He couldn't deny, though, that he had a hard time focussing on his work with Klaus being on his mind constantly. It was a quiet night as he drove around in his car, listening to the police scanner. He had just been about to give up and drive back home when he heard a burglary being reported not too far off from where he was at that point.

As he later returned to the house, he knew that he shouldn't have gone out in the first place. Of course, he had tied up the bad guys for the police and left the terrified owners of the house with a cheeky little message for Eudora but he had also gotten shot. It was not a big deal. At least for Diego, it wasn't. The bullet had only grazed his left side. Sure, it could have ripped straight through his spleen and then he would have been in big ass trouble. It hadn't, though. He was fine and he rather ignored the possibility of almost not being fine as he reached the academy.

The lights were all out as far as he could see from the alley leading to the kitchen door. Good. Diego decided that he would first clean and patch himself up before going back upstairs to where Klaus was hopefully still sleeping soundly. Grace had given him valerian to help him find rest at night. It seemed to help. He could only hope that Klaus hadn't woken up to a night terror only to find himself alone in the attic. Or worse yet, he could have had a nightmare and woken up Luther again. Well, last time he checked, Diego wasn't a prisoner to this house and could go as he pleased, right? Then again, he had brought Klaus to the house and so his brother was his responsibility as it was.

The house was quiet as he walked in through the kitchen door. However, the moment he locked the door behind him firmly against the evils of the outside world, he noticed the dim light coming from the living room through the doorway. Someone was up. Crap. He would need to go past whoever was in the living room to get to a first aid kit to take care of his wounds. Maybe they were asleep on the sofa. He could almost picture Five asleep on the sofa with a book on his chest and that creepy mannequin on the floor beside him.

Diego was silent as a cat as he left the kitchen and went to sneak past whoever was occupying the living room. He didn't get very far, though, as a very familiar mop of hair raised to the surface from behind the backrest of the sofa.

»Klaus?« He mumbled, careful not to make too much noise. »What are you doing down here?«

»I woke up and you weren't there.« Klaus replied just as quiet. »I got scared. I got worried.«

Diego felt his heart sink just slightly as he took in how Klaus was curled up on the sofa under a blanket. He probably searched the entire house for Diego until he decided to wait here for his return. It was odd. This wasn't like Klaus. Klaus wasn't a puppy who was severely unhappy when their owner wasn't around. Diego knew that this relationship that they had developed in such short a time was beyond unhealthy. Klaus had been so used to being watched and monitored and controlled and now that he didn't have that anymore, he was latching onto Diego as for dear life. And Diego himself was all too happy to allow him to do just that because he was starved for attention, starved for love and camaraderie. _Fuck. This is bad, Diego. Really bad_.

»You are hurt.« Klaus chimed up again and ripped him out of his thoughts. He followed the wary look Klaus gave the rip in his shirt. Good thing he was wearing all black. Blood was harder to spot on black.

Yet, Klaus got to his feet slowly. With a scowl, Diego noticed that he had once more lost the socks Diego always forced upon him. Usually, he was losing them in bed because he was tossing and turning too much and the socks were at least two sizes too big anyway. It was about time they would get him his own clothes. Maybe he could ask Allison to go and find stuff for Klaus.

»It's not a big deal.« Diego shrugged and held out his hand to Klaus. The other man took it right away without any hesitation. »Come on, let's get you back to bed.«

»No.« Well, that was a first since Klaus was back with them. »No … We have to get you patched up first … I call Mom…«

»No, don't.« Diego sighed and, as he saw how nervous Klaus appeared at the prospect of having done something wrong, he smiled and added: »I don't want the others to know. They’ll only give me shit for doing my own thing out there. You can help me clean up, okay?«

Klaus nodded all too eagerly. He was eager to please and that disturbed Diego to no end. Klaus had always been rebellious and wild but those people in this asylum had broken him down completely. He hated his submissiveness. He hated it that Klaus wouldn't throw him some sarcastic little comment to annoy him.

»Can you fetch me the first aid kit from the bathroom?« Klaus immediately let go of his hand and wobbled out of the room on naked feet. What was he doing? He should send Klaus back to bed and take care of this mess by himself. And yet, maybe this was what Klaus needed. He had lived the past twelve years in some sort of limbo, unable to do anything, unable to think for himself or contribute anything of worth, without any agency of his own. Maybe it was about time to give him that. Agency and the freedom to do something of worth. Diego slowly walked over to the bar and uncapped a bottle of whiskey that was left on the counter. It didn't take long for Klaus to come back to him with the first aid kit and he looked so pleased with himself as he did. _Mission accomplished_ , Diego thought. Baby steps.

He mirrored Klaus’ smile before stripping off his belts and putting them on the counter next to the bottle, his shirt soon to follow. Already he could see numerous bruises forming all over his body. He hadn't even realized how much those fuckers had been able to pounce on him. Well, that was the risk of the job, he assumed. Klaus, on the other hand, was setting the kit down and immediately after that Diego could feel cold fingertips tracing his injuries carefully. He tried not to flinch and tried not to think too much about how Klaus was touching his naked chest right now.

»It's not so bad.« He said again before he pulled Klaus’ hands off and opened the kit. For a second, he considered getting a wet cloth to clean his wound, instead, he grabbed the bottle of whiskey and just poured a generous amount on the cut in his side. The hiss escaping him was nothing compared to the way Klaus flinched and quickly took the bottle from him.

»What are you doing?« Klaus hissed as he put down the bottle a bit too hard on the countertop. Diego just smirked and reached into the first aid kit to grab a pack of gauze to wrap around his midsection. Gladly, it wasn’t so deep that it needed stitches.

»It's okay.« Diego huffed only to have Klaus take charge again and started to wrap Diego up properly. He was too serious for Diego’s liking still. He missed his joking brother. He missed his carefree brother - though he doubted that his brother really had ever been as carefree as he had portrayed it. It had been his coping mechanism. Maybe this new Klaus was more like the real thing. As he finished up on Diego, Diego himself grabbed the bottle again to take a good swig of the amber liquid. He wasn't much of a drinker on most days, his body was a temple, after all, but sometimes he enjoyed the burn of a good whiskey in his throat.

He knew that he should not offer the bottle to his brother and yet he did. Out of all of them, Klaus had probably had the most experience with alcohol. He had started drinking around the tender age of thirteen to keep the ghosts at bay - that was at least what he had told Diego back then. Giving Klaus alcohol after twelve years of sobriety was irresponsible and mean and awful and yet, Klaus met him with a small little grin that almost looked like that Cheshire grin he had loved and cherished so much. His brother took a much smaller sip of the bottle before giving it back.

»I’m sorry for leaving you alone.« He sighed and took another swig. The truth was, Diego was kind of a lightweight when it came to strong alcohol. He was already feeling the buzz. It could be from exhaustion. The last week hadn't been easy to get through but he didn't regret it. »I wanted to be back before you wake up.«

»I thought something had happened to you.« Klaus frowned. »I was afraid you wouldn't come back. Ben said you would. But what does he know? He’s dead. All he does is complain about being dead anyway.«

The others would have probably glared daggers at Klaus for bringing up Ben but Diego thought that if anyone had the right to talk about Ben it would be Klaus. He had been his best friend, after all. And yet, the mention of Ben always made Diego’s heart shatter a little. To the rest of them, Ben was gone but to Klaus? To someone who could see the dead and was living in some sort of grey area between the world of the living and the world of the dead?

»Is he here now?« Diego asked quietly as he put the bottle away and out of immediate reach for either one of them.

»He’s always there.« Klaus rolled his eyes with a fond little smile. »He says hi. Ben has decided that he needs to always have an eye on me.«

Diego chuckled a little as he looked around the room that seemed empty except for him and Klaus. »Thanks, Ben.« He muttered and couldn't help but feel incredibly stupid doing so. »Was he with you at the asylum?«

»Yes.« Klaus mumbled. »But I didn't know. I mean … I did know … and then I didn't anymore. They … they were screwing with my head so much that I didn't recognize him anymore. And when they asked me to who I was talking and when I told them that I was talking to my dead brother, they forced pills down my throat until I wouldn't do it anymore, until I would forget, until Ben was only one more ghost around me.« He shrugged but his shoulders slumped heavily. »If you wouldn't have come … I don't know.«

He would have tried to kill himself again and again and at one point he would have succeeded.

Diego pulled him against his chest before his mind could intervene, wrapping Klaus in an almost crushing embrace. He didn't want to think about what might or might not have been. He didn't want to think that he could have lost his brother twice to suicide, unable to help him, unable to do anything about it. If Klaus would have died in that hospital, they would have gotten a message from them and he would have been crushed. Maybe he would have thrown himself off the next available bridge then. Losing him once had been hard enough on him already.

»I’m just so glad that you are with m- _us_ again.« Diego mumbled into his soft hair, enjoying how Klaus melted against him with not a care in the world for how this might look like to others. It didn't matter. They were alone - except for Ben. The only thing that mattered was that he had Klaus back and he would never allow him to get hurt or lost ever again.

»When Dad told us you had killed yourself … I thought it was my fault. I thought I hadn't taken good enough care of you. I thought that I should’ve been there for you after Ben’s death. I thought … the way I treated you after … I was an asshole and I let you down and then you were gone and I couldn't apologize.«

He felt Klaus’ fingers snake from his shoulders to the back of his neck every so gingerly and before he knew it, Klaus had brought enough room between them to pull Diego in even closer by his neck. It was just a brushing of lips at first as Klaus had him where he wanted him. Barely a kiss but it sent Diego’s world into a spiral of chaos nonetheless. He wanted to scoop him up and sit him on the counter, slither between his long legs and ravish him with kisses.

He should push him away. Diego was aware that he should not allow this. Instead, Diego put his hands on both sides of his face to hold him close, moving his lips into a real kiss, into something he had dreamed of so many times already in those shameful little nights he had shared alone in his crappy boiler room apartment.

As they parted, his breath was heavier than it had any right to.

»Ben told me to shut you up.« Klaus explained with a sly little grin and with a huff, Diego leaned in once more to steal a kiss from those brittle lips.

 

**-End of Chapter 12-**


	13. Chapter 13

»You know, when I told you to shut him up in his rambling, I didn't mean you should kiss him.« Ben groaned from his spot inside the old tent that he had claimed for himself to watch over both his brothers when they would lie down to sleep on the old mattresses that Diego had found in some storage room.

»What else was I supposed to do, Jackass? Punch him?« Klaus replied with a sly little smirk on his face as he glanced at Ben who didn't seem quite happy with the latest developments. Klaus, on the other hand, did feel very happy indeed. In fact, he had no idea when he had last felt this level of contentedness. He felt as peace and the ghosts inside the attic were mostly quiet right now.

»Maybe.«

»Have you _seen_ Diego?« He huffed. »The dude is ripped. He could crush me with his bare hands!«

»You always had a thing for ripped guys.« Ben rolled his eyes. »But did it have to be our brother?«

»Oh, shush.« Klaus mumbled as he turned around on his makeshift bed in the attic. Sunlight was softly filtering in through the glass roof. He flopped down on his stomach, his nose pressed into Diego’s pillow. His brother had vacated his own mattress on the ground half an hour ago, thinking that Klaus was still asleep when he left.

He didn't know where he had gone or why and could only imagine that Diego was either taking a shower to escape the awkward situation or he was already torturing himself again with his stupid work out routine. As if this guy needed that anyway. And yet, on the other hand, Klaus was glad that Diego was slowly getting back into his own routine again. Even though the thought of not being with him 24/7 was frightening.

»Just admit that you are glad that we kissed.«

Ben let out a deep sigh that sounded almost a bit too real for a ghost. Judging by how weak the other ghosts usually sounded. They always sounded hollow, raspy and frail. Ben, however, not. Ben looked almost too real and sounded too real. Klaus always forgot that he wasn't able to touch his dead brother or hug him. It was hard sometimes.

»You know what?« Ben finally replied quietly. »You are right, I’m glad you guys kissed. But now what?«

»What do you mean?« He mumbled in Diego’s pillow, unwilling to lift his nose out of the fabric and away from Diego’s scent.

»I mean … do you want to be together? Like a couple? Like Allison and Luther? Or what? I just wanna know so that I can go away when you guys go at it.«

This time it was Klaus who was forced to roll his eyes but instead of replying anything snarky or sarcastic, he clamped his mouth shut. Yes, what now? He didn't know what was about to happen between him and Diego. Would they become a couple? They had been at this point already a lifetime ago before he died and went to hell.

Back then their father had yelled at them and Diego hadn’t fought for him. Of course not, they had only been fooling around back then after all, right? Still, Diego had pushed him away after their father had caught them canoodling behind that bar. He had pushed him away and it had hurt. He couldn't deny that it had hurt and that he had felt humiliated and ashamed and heartbroken. Diego had always wanted to please their father and he had rather dodged him than angering his father. And why would anyone do something like this for someone like Klaus anyway? Of course, Diego had sought the approval of their father instead of running away with him.

»I don't know.« Klaus finally replied honestly as he looked at Ben again. He found his brother staring at him in worry and almost he felt touched by it.

»I just don't want you to get hurt.« Ben finally addressed the elephant in the room. He had been there when Klaus met Dave even as Klaus hadn't known it. He had been there when Dave died. He had witnessed every single time Klaus had tried to kill himself.  Maybe he had reason to worry about Klaus’ fragile state of mind. If anyone had any right to worry about that, it would be Ben, right? Good old Benny. »Not that I think that Diego would ever hurt you. I mean … the guy is head over heels for you - Not that this would be new … I mean he had always had a crush on you.«

»Shut up.« Klaus huffed.

»Pardon?« Diego’s voice came from the door and would have made Klaus jump had he not been lying down. His head was pounding in the early morning light and he wanted to sleep away the rest of his life - preferably with Diego at his side. As Klaus slowly turned his head to look at the vigilante standing in the doorway, Diego wore a small smirk on his lips. Not to mention that he was only wearing his pants which were sitting a bit too low on his hips, the skin on his bare chest still a little damp, his hair still wet and droplets of water still running down those perfectly chiseled abs.

Well, it seemed with being freed from the asylum and being sober from the medication they had given him, his libido had made a grant return as well. Thank God.

»I was talking to Ben.« He explained into Diego’s pillow. »He was talking shit.«

For a moment, Diego stared at him in what could only be considered amazement and Klaus couldn't quite wrap his head around why. Well, then again, his brother Diego was a weird kind of guy. Diego surprised him, however, when he directed his gaze to some corner of the room. »Ben, stop talking shit and make yourself useful, Punk.«

Only Klaus could hear the stifled laughter coming from the tent. Of course, even he in his confused state of mind, floating somewhere between reality and nightmarish wonderland, could tell that Diego was trying to make him laugh a little. It was that thought and not so much Diego’s words, that actually helped his face to break into a soft little smile. No matter what Ben said, he knew that he was doomed.

»Ready for breakfast?« Diego smiled as he walked closer. He had gotten rid of the gauze around his midsection and instead applied a big band-aid to the wound. Already he was reaching for one of his dark shirts on the ground to pull it on.

»Not yet.« Klaus huffed, feeling a bit like taking risks this early in the day. He was terrified of scaring Diego away. He was terrified of doing something he couldn't take back later but he just needed to know where he was at with Diego. He was his anchor in reality, he was the one thing keeping him grounded more than anything and helping Klaus not to float away. He kept the ghosts at bay better than any drug had ever been able to. He didn't want to lose him.

»What's wrong?« He seemed concerned as he sat down on the mattress next after pulling a fresh shirt over his head that he had picked up from where it had been resting on a chair in the corner. »Are you not feeling good?« The moment Klaus turned on his side, Diego put his hand on his forehead. He could hear Ben groan from the tent.

»You owe me a kiss.«

For just a second, he was certain that Diego would leave and never talk to him again but then the tension melted from his face and his eyes were once more deep pools of melted chocolate. Maybe for other people it was weird that he could look at Diego like this despite growing up together, then again, Klaus was crazy, right? His emotions didn't need to make sense.

And Diego seemed to feel the same way as he leaned down to press his lips almost too tenderly against Klaus’ own. The kiss was almost a bit too chaste and innocent for Klaus’ liking. It was warm and comforting. It felt like coming home after fighting in a war - and it was entirely too short.

»Better?«

»No.« Klaus grinned and earned himself a pinch in his left ear.

By the door, someone cleared their throat. »You guys ready?« The sound of Luther's deep voice startled them both so much that Klaus was certain that one of them would have a heart attack. Diego paled considerably as he whirled his head around to look at their brother. Luther's face was stony and unreadable and with a sinking feeling, Klaus realized that he reminded him of their father. »Five wants to speak to us after breakfast. Alone. He says it's important.«

※※※※※※※

They had set up Klaus to paint in the sunny yard under Mom’s watchful eyes while the rest of them had gathered in the library of all places. Diego had always hated the library. His siblings Vanya, Ben, and Five not so much. Heck, even Klaus had spent more time in this room than Diego before everything had turned to shit.

He was avoiding looking at Luther ever since Luther had walked in on Klaus and him earlier this day. He should feel embarrassed, he assumed. He didn't, though. He couldn't bring himself to feel ashamed of what he and Klaus had shared since Klaus had patched him up last night.  How could he feel ashamed or guilty or anything negative when he could trick himself into thinking that he could still taste Klaus on his lips.

However, seeing Five’s very much serious face as they gathered around the small sitting area in the middle of the library, he realized that now was not the time to allow the butterflies in his stomach to go crazy on him. Vanya gave him a small look he couldn't quite pinpoint. Five, however, commanded all their attention as he slapped the file that he had been holding onto since they entered on the coffee table in the midst of them, his expression stony and his brows furrowed.

»So, Diego was right.« Five said as he glanced at his brother. Diego only raised one questioning eyebrow. »They tortured him. Well, not in the typical sense of the word, I guess. It's not like they put leeches on him or beat him or crap like this.«

»Five.« Luther boomed, already impatient and annoyed. »Tell us what you learned.«

Vanya, however, already pulled the file towards her to open it. There it was, right in front of them. Sitting next to Vanya, Diego could see it all. The first page held Klaus’ registration form, completed with pictures of his half-naked body. He hated it. He knew that it was the standard procedure to document the state a newly admitted patient was in. The form held all available information on him, date of birth, place of birth, his full name - God, even his number - his patient number, his exact height and how it had changed. Everything. And, of course, his diagnosis. Amongst other things that were clearly untrue the list held what they had already heard: depression, suicidal tendencies, self-destructive behavior.

»What I learned« Five groaned. »is that Dr. Ashcroft was in cahoots with dear old dad. At least to the point where he knew about the validity of Klaus’ claims of being able to see and talk to the dead and yet he treated it like a mental illness. His assigned doctor didn't seem to be in on it, though. The poor bastard tried to treat Klaus like every other patient who claimed to hear voices and see things that weren't there. Paranoid schizophrenia, he called it in his notes.«

»Electroshock therapy?« Vanya mumbled as she turned the page. »Is this even still legal?« Diego almost ripped the file out of her hands after that. But there it was. Right there. They had tried to treat him with electroconvulsive therapy, just a fancy way to say that they had shot electricity through his body and brain as if he wasn't even a real human being.

»They used it for more than just therapy, apparently.« Five shrugged. »There was a tape. Well, numerous tapes. I took them and, dare I say, I don't think you guys should watch them, especially Diego. No offense but I don't think you running into the asylum and killing everyone in sight would benefit us very much.«

»That bad?« Allison asked in a quiet voice. Of course, now Diego wanted to watch those tapes even more. Already, he felt fury boiling in the pit of his stomach as he turned page after page, being confronted with various pictures of his brother documenting injuries, self-inflicted or not, documenting how he was wasting away in this hellhole of a hospital. There were photos of other people too, staff mostly, after Klaus had attacked them. He had tried to stab out the eye of his doctor, Dr. Jones, with a letter opener at one point and that was just one case of Klaus showing extremely violent tendencies.

»It appears that Dr. Ashcroft, who consulted closely with Dr. Jones and decided most of Klaus’ medication, gave him drugs that only heightened his awareness of the ghosts while numbing him to everything else. He used some drug that was developed by him personally over the course of the last twelve years and has been perfected only a few months ago, according to his notes. Needless to say, he was testing it on Klaus.

He was trying to test out Klaus’ powers for himself in a way our father hadn't. He didn't allow Klaus to wear shoes or socks after he realized that his connection to the other side seemed stronger that way and isolated him for no reason to have him experience the full extent of his powers, often locking him away in the padded cells or an isolation chamber in the basement. He was convinced that Klaus could do much more than just talking to the dead. Apparently, Dad thought the same thing. However, none of them could tell what they thought Klaus could potentially be capable of.«

Five rattled off as if reading a script as if this way it would be easier to get over all of this.

»They experimented on him quite a bit but never got the results they were hoping for because Klaus was too resistant. They tried to break him and his resistance with drugs or punishments but they didn't quite succeed. I think, sooner or later, they would have gotten rid of him.«

Diego wanted to lunge at someone, preferably his father, and beat the shit out of good old Reggie. The notes became only worse the farther he got in this file. There were mentions of abuse by the staff, not that anyone would have been punished for laying a finger on Klaus. Notes about stress being induced forcefully on him to help unleash his true potential. Notes about how Nurse Parker, under the orders of Dr. Ashcroft, would push Klaus’ head under water when he would take a bath to see if a near-death experience would do something for his powers. All it did was almost drowning Klaus on numerous occasions, though. A few things were blacked out which only heightened his concern. And then there was a whole page about Dave Thompson.

There it all was, everything Klaus had told them about his ex-boyfriend. He had a face to the tale now as a good looking blonde guy with striking blue eyes looked back at him from a small photo attached to the page. He looked like a nice guy and in the notes, it didn't state anything about violent tendencies. Quite the opposite, Dave seemed to have been a perfect patient and very much willing to get better after his traumatic accident during his basic training with the army that caused his delusion of being a Vietnam soldier stuck in the 1960s. His sudden suicide didn't fit. But there were numerous notes on the relationship to Klaus and how negatively Dr. Ashcroft saw it.

Five looked over at him and glimpsed the page he was on. »Dave was too much of a positive influence on Klaus.« He recited what he had read on that page Diego was on. »After meeting Dave, Klaus changed and got himself a bit better under control. He was not as receptive to the experiments as he was before.«

»So Dave needed to go.« Luther finally concluded and drove a hand over his face. »Are you telling us …  that they killed Klaus’ boyfriend because he was too good for him?«

»That appears to be the case. They made it look like a suicide and got rid of him and Klaus fell back into his old spiral of depression and self-harm. Finally, they had him where they wanted him, so to say.«

»I’m gonna kill all of them.« Diego growled as he threw the file across the table and jumped to his feet. Vanya reached out to him to stop him but he was already heading towards the door of the library.

»And then what?« Five finally exclaimed. »You are going to rush there, kill them all, burn this place to the ground and then what? Most of the people, even this Dr. Jones, are innocent bystanders. Maybe it would be best if you would just calm down and focus on what's really important right now and that's getting Klaus the help he needs from us.«

Five was right, not that knowing this would usually serve to stop Diego as soon as the Kraken would have set his mind on doing something. He set his jaw and clenched his teeth so hard that he was sure he would break some of them off. He felt anger rushing through his blood like a virus and as his eyes met Luther’s, he wanted to punch his brother straight in his stupid face. He looked at Diego as if he thought it was silly that Diego was so enraged. He wondered how Luther would react if they would be talking about Allison here.

»Five is right, Diego.« Allison cooed and he barely noticed how Vanya was getting up and reaching out for him once more as if she was trying to calm a scared animal. He shook her off a bit too harsh.

»Fine.« He hissed. » _Fine_. But you can't expect me to keep what really happened to Dave a secret from Klaus. He deserves to know that.«

»You will send him spiraling down when you tell him!« Allison replied swiftly and though she might be right, Diego knew that he wouldn't be able to just keep his mouth shut. He couldn't allow those people to win, he couldn't allow Klaus to keep living with this lie.

»He needs to know the truth.« Diego stood his ground. »Do you guys have any idea what it feels like when someone you love kills themselves and you can't help but blame yourself? Klaus lived with that pain for so many years now! Thinking that he might have been able to help Dave if he would have just listened more, if he would have just been there for him more. And you expect me to keep what really happened a secret and allow him to continue to live with that pain? He will never be able to let go like this. He will forever ask himself what could have been.«

»Of course, we know what this feels like.« Allison scowled. »You weren't the only one who lost someone you loved back then. We lost him too, Diego. And we lost Ben and Five. And that Klaus and Five are now back with us is a miracle but we have to be careful. Or do you want to lose him again and this time without miraculous resurrection?«

He bit his tongue. He wanted to yell at her and throw at her how little they all had cared about Klaus back in the day. Instead, he clamped his mouth shut. They had been over this too many times already. »He’s stronger than you guys give him credit for. He was always stronger than you guys thought.«

With that, he finally left the library and this time no one came after him.  

He found Klaus still in the yard with Grace. His mother sat on a bench in the sunshine of the early days of March, doing some embroidering while humming to herself and Klaus was engrossed in his art once more. Luther had carried his easel out in the yard and Diego had made sure that Klaus would be warm enough. He was sketching their mother as it seemed as Diego walked over to him. For once no nightmarish grimaces or demons on his canvas.

He wanted to wrap his arms around him from behind and rest his chin on his shoulder. Instead, he just walked over to him and took position beside him. »Looks good.« He smiled to get Klaus’ attention as he tried not to be weighed down completely by the things he had just been told by Five. He doubted that either one of them could fully grasp the true horrors Klaus had lived through in this asylum, though. He had suspected from the start that something awful must have happened to Klaus at the asylum, that they had tried to break him down completely, perhaps even. The way he had lashed out on their siblings … the way he had lashed out at himself … However, looking at Klaus now, he forced a smile and swallowed the truth about Dave for now. Maybe Allison was right. Maybe now was not the time. He would tell him, of course, but maybe not right now.

Crap.

»I had a lot of time to practice.« Klaus hummed quietly as he shortly glanced at Diego before focussing on Mom again. However, as a cloud shoved itself in front of the sun, Grace perked up and looked at her boys.

»It's going to rain in a bit.« She informed them calmly. »Diego, would you be a dear and bring Klaus’ utensils inside?«

Klaus frowned a little, clearly bummed out by having his time outside cut short but he was still compliant as he stepped away from the easel and closed his fist around the piece of coal he had used to do the sketch. Well, at least now they knew for certain how they had succeeded in making him so submissive. Torture could do something like this even to someone as wild and goofy as Klaus. They had stripped him of everything that was uniquely Klaus Hargreeves and left a hollow little shell behind that was tormented by dark and disturbing visions of the ghosts always lingering about and causing him to flinch or lash out at empty air.

He had seen his brother swat at nothing numerous times already, had heard him talking to people that weren't even there - not just Ben. He couldn't help but card his fingers through his curls briefly before he went to lift the easel and tried not to disturb the canvas on top too much while doing so.

»Hey, how about you take a nice long bath?« Diego turned to Klaus as Grace crossed the distance between them. She brushed her knuckles over Diego’s cheek in silent praise before she hooked her arm with one of Klaus’. Despite what he had lived through at the asylum, Klaus still seemed a fan of taking baths and Diego was glad about it.

The others had liked to bitch about it a lot when they had been younger because Klaus used to block their bathroom for hours sometimes, but Diego just wanted to see him happy. And heck, it wasn't as if Klaus had locked the door every time anyway. Even as teenagers, Klaus had been completely okay with lying in the tub and having his siblings flounder into the room. Most times he hadn't even closed the door all the way.

In his eyes, it wasn't his problem if his siblings were embarrassed by his nudity. Needless to say, in later years, this aspect of Klaus’ personality had been torture for Diego when his libido had run wild and he had always been confronted by the object of his desire.

»Diego, do you have a minute?« He found Luther standing awkwardly in the living room as he set the easel up in the middle of the room just as Klaus was led out into the corridor leading towards their bedrooms by Grace. Whatever Luther had to tell him, it couldn't be good and was probably bound to anger him. Well, that was just how it was between him and Luther no matter how pure his intentions might be at times.

He watched how Klaus was led out of the room by Grace, idly talking to her long lost son.

»I haven't told him if that's what you are concerned about.« Diego muttered as he walked over to where Luther was standing near the fireplace before he slumped down on the sofa. »But I will, eventually.«

»No, that's not … I mean I’m glad that you didn't but that's not what I was concerned about.« Luther seemed even more awkward now and that told him all he needed to know about what was about to come. Luther dragged a hand through his short hair and pulled his white turtleneck shirt back into place, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt quite impressively for such a big guy.  »Five left to find out more about Ashcroft or Dave.«

Five, that little demon … In the end, he _did_ care about their brother. Then again, was it so much of a surprise? Their brother had seen the end of everything and since he had been alone for all this time, Diego thought it was safe to assume that the rest of them had been dead. »Luther, come on, be out with it already and stop wasting my time.« Outside, the first drops of rain started to fall and crash against the large windows of the living room.

Luther frowned, scrunched his eyebrows together and let out a deep sigh, letting his wide shoulders slump dramatically. »Okay, I guess there is no nice way to say this so I’m just gonna say it.«

»It's about me and Klaus, isn't it?« Not that he would have thought he would ever have a conversation like this with his brother.

»It is, yes.« Luther muttered and sat down heavily on the armchair just to Diego’s left-hand side. »Okay, listen. I don't think that what you guys are doing is a good idea.«

»And what exactly are we doing?«

»Diego, please.«

»No, fatass. You wanna have this conversation? Fine. But then be man enough to use the words.« He could see how his face hardened drastically and he was sure that the same was true for his own face as well.

»As you wish.« He groaned. »I don't think that it's a good idea if you guys start a romantic relationship.«

»And why is that?«

»You know why.«

»I'm afraid I don't know why, Luther. Please, do enlighten me. Why is this so different from your relationship to Allison? Because we are men?«

»Do you really think so little of me?«

»I don't _know_ what I think about you, Luther. We haven't seen each other for twelve years, after all. Who am I to tell what kind of crap our father has made you believe in the meantime? Our father was quite the _traditionalist,_  after all.«

Luther gritted his teeth and Diego was almost certain that he had struck home with his accusation. Because, yes, Luther had been brainwashed by their father. He had always been Reggie 2.0, his little puppet dancing from Reginald's strings without the ability to form his own opinions or speak for himself. Everything Luther had said while growing up had been an echo of something their father would tell them. Maybe his prejudice wasn't even Luther's fault. He had been raised this way, he had never questioned his father, had believed that he was right in whatever he had told them. Their father's word was the law of the land and Luther would follow it to the letter. But now he was a grown man and he still couldn't think for himself.

»It's not about that.« Luther then managed to get through gritted teeth. »It's not because you are guys.«

»Then what? And don't you dare say it's because we’re brothers, Luther. We were never raised to be a family. All we share is the same traumatic childhood and a name. We were raised as warriors and every semblance of a family we have, we have built for ourselves because it was a childhood need.«

»It's not about that either.« Luther dismissed even more agitated because even he realized how hypocritical it would be for him to say something along those lines when he was in love with their sister. »Diego, listen to reason for once. Klaus just got out of a mental asylum. You know his file now. He was tortured and experimented on for twelve years, isolated and broken down and yes, of course, he latches on to you now! You are his hero. You have always been his hero but this time you actually rescued him from a terrible situation and possible death. He can't think straight at the moment. He is not in the right mindset to make a decision so serious. He can't consent to anything you guys are doing.«

Diego wanted to throw insults at him. Diego wanted to attack him and punch him and beat the shit out of him. But he was right, wasn't he? For once in his life, Luther had a point and even Diego, hot-headed Diego, had to admit that to himself. He didn't get to reply, however, as a loud noise interrupted their heated conversation. It sounded almost like a little explosion coming from the front door and then all hell broke loose as two masked assassins rushed into the house.

 

**-End of Chapter 13-**


	14. Chapter 14

The quiet was blissful underneath the water. It was silent and dark and he felt like he was floating on a cloud. For the longest time, he was just floating. A lifetime might pass, an eternity and nothing around him seemed to matter. The asylum was just a bad dream and so were the hands that kept pushing him under the surface. He could feel them push against his shoulders, push him down to the bottom of the tub until he wouldn't be able to breathe anymore. Yet, he was floating, the hands didn't bother him. Nothing was bothering him. He felt at peace.

_ Klaus! _ The screaming came suddenly and entirely without warning.  _ Klaus! Help us! _ It was unbearable. It had always been unbearable. He remembered that the drugs had helped him. He remembered that the alcohol had helped him. He remembered the feeling of snorting cocaine or swallow pills. He remembered how it felt to shoot heroin into his veins and poison his body.

_ Klaus! _

He missed the poison shooting through his body. The ghosts seemed louder today and all Klaus wanted to do was find something - anything - to numb and silence them. They were quieter when he was around Diego but Diego was talking to Luther and he didn't like that.

_ Klaus! Help us! Please! _

He pressed his hands to his ears and tried to drown out the ghosts. He could see them even behind closed eyes. Their horrible grimaces were burned into his retinas no matter if he had his eyes open or not. He was back at the mausoleum again for just a second but this second lasted a lifetime. 

He was again curled up on the cold stone floor, hidden away in the farthest corner from the door, his arms around his head so that he wouldn't hear or see anything and yet the demons and the ghouls were still there and screeching and yelling and shouting and terrorizing him. And he knew that his father wouldn't come. He knew his father would leave him to rot. His father would leave him until he would have lost his mind and became just one more of those nightmarish creatures.

He would turn grey, lose every bit of color to his body, his flesh would fall off his bones and he would become just one more rotten zombie terrorizing people like himself. Were there even other people like him out there? He would know when he would be just one more rotting corpse that was being eaten by worms in the earth as well, he assumed. 

Maybe he was already rotting in his grave. Maybe he was forced to relive the moment of his death over and over again like so many other of the ghosts that came to him. He had died in this bathtub, right? He remembered poking a needle into his arm and pushing down. He remembered the blissful feeling of heroin pumping through his veins until he hadn't felt anything at all anymore. His heart going slower and slower and slower until it stopped.

And then he had woken up in his little white room.

He shot upright, ripping his eyes open and clawing at his chest out of reflex. He could still feel their hands on his skin. He could feel it like bugs crawling all over his body. As he smashed his hands onto the surface he sent drops flying everywhere but even that didn't give him any peace. 

Only as he gasped for breath now did he realize that he had been in dire need of air. He wished he could have convinced his body to stay beneath the surface just a bit longer because as he blinked the water out of his eyes now, he could tell how the walls were slowly but steadily moving in on him. Soon there would be no room left for him. He would suffocate slowly and painfully and there was no help in sight for him. No Diego, no Mom, no Five, no Vanya. He would suffocate and no one would notice because everyone in his family would be too busy with some other drama. They had never noticed him. They had never cared.

»Klaus!« Ben. Oh, good old Ben. He was standing in the corner of the bathroom right in front of him with crossed arms and worry etched deeply into the very core of his face. Over the years it had become somewhat of his default mode and Klaus wondered if Ben had always looked at him like that. Maybe death made Ben see things a little differently now. He seemed more serious since he was dead. And yet, less afraid. Maybe being dead was a blessing, not a curse.

Ben usually avoided being with him when he was naked. He was such a good kid. Klaus, however, was not that and he couldn't silence the voices in his head for even a second now. He needed Diego. Or a joint. Hell, when had he last tasted the sweet embrace of weed? »Klaus, you need to breathe!«

Well, of course! No shit, Sherlock! If he wouldn't breathe, he would die. Even Klaus Hargreeves knew this for a fact. That didn't make it any easier, though. He couldn't force his lungs to suck in air. He couldn't force his body to do its basic functions! He would suffocate under the weight of the hundreds of spirits who never possessed the same amount of decency or politeness as Ben and never left him alone whether he was naked or fucking or doing anything else that he might want to do in private. 

»Breathe, come on.« Ben tried again and inched closer. For a moment, as Klaus just stared at him, shuddering and trembling and unable to speak or breathe or do anything at all, he was certain that Ben would be able to touch him if he would extend his hand towards him. The thought was horrifying to Klaus. So much, in fact, that he actually flinched away from Ben for the first time in his entire life. He knew that he wouldn't be able to stand being touched by Ben or anyone for that matter. 

Ben stopped as he had reached the bathtub and crouched down next to it, his hands resting on the edge as if he could actually feel the ceramic underneath his fingers. But Ben was dead. Just like Dave. Beautiful, wonderful, gentle, kind Dave. He was dead and Ben was dead and he remembered Ben standing in the doorway of the living room covered in blood. He remembered Ben lying on the cot in the infirmary with a gaping hole in his chest. 

»Breathe, Klaus.« Ben tried again, more urgently this time around. »You are hyperventilating. You need to calm down. Breathe, okay? I’m sure Mom will be right back - or Diego. Diego will be here soon, okay? You’ll see, he’ll help you.«

He always did. But Diego was talking to Luther and Luther would tell him how wrong it was of Diego to abuse Klaus’ blind trust in him. Luther would tell Diego how wrong it was for them to start anything remotely romantic or sexual. And, just like last time, when their father caught them, Diego would cave under the pressure and he would seek his distance to Klaus again. He would be alone again. He would be lost again and no one would be there to help him keep away the ghosts anymore. He didn't want to be alone anymore.

»Klaus, hey, remember that song Luther used to play on his old record player when he thought no one was around to hear it?« Ben smiled. »What was it … ‘I think we’re alone now’? Yes! That was it! do you remember how we made fun of him for listening to such a girly song all the time?«

»We danced to it, though.« Klaus managed to breathe out with a small hiccup. »We … We danced in my room and jumped on my bed.«

»Before it broke.« Ben laughed and Klaus nodded. »God, Dad was so mad that day! I can still hear him being like ‘I expected more of you, Number Six!’« 

»He didn't expect more of me, though.« Klaus mumbled quietly and Ben shrugged.

»Because you were always rebellious.« 

»That's not true.«

»No, I know.« Ben huffed. »When we were younger, before we hit puberty, you were actually quite meek and soft. You were too good for this world or this house. I remember how you always wanted to help anyone around. You wanted to help Mom and Pogo, even Dad. I remember that you were always the first any one of us would go to when we had a problem or had gotten hurt and needed a shoulder to lean on.« Ben's eyes were soft as he spoke and his mere presence slowly calmed his rapid heartbeat as his heart tried desperately to escape his ribcage like a songbird in captivity.

»Luther is gonna get Diego to distance himself from me again.« Klaus muttered as he drew his knees into his chest and wrapped his arms around them only to bury his face against his skin. He was freezing. The water was slowly going cold and he didn't want to get out. It was still so odd for him not to be monitored 24/7. 

He wasn't allowed to climb out of the tub without Nurse Parker being there to help him. He wasn't allowed to roam these corridors on his own. He had to have someone holding onto his elbow at all times so that he couldn't run off or attack someone or do anything stupid. Those were the rules and he was not going to break them now just because the water was getting cold. Someone would come for him soon and then he would be allowed to get out and get dressed and warm again.

»No, he isn't.« Ben smiled. »I mean, yes, he is going to try but Diego is not a kid anymore, Klaus.« He could almost feel Ben’s hand as he touched his shoulder. It was cold and uncomfortable and he hated it. He had always hated it when the spirits would touch him. It was such an odd, tingling sensation. »Diego is an adult now, Klaus, and he regrets letting you down back then.«

»It's wrong what we are doing.« Klaus muttered so silently that his voice barely reached his own ears, let alone echo from the walls around them. 

He remembered Dr. Jones telling him how wrong it was to have feelings of this nature for his own brother and when Klaus told him that they were not really related he would get angry and tell him that this didn't matter in the slightest. He remembered asking him why it was okay if Allison and Luther had anything going on but not Diego and he and his doctor had frowned at him in a way that made Klaus go ‘oh’ without needing to hear the answer. It was different because they were guys. Nobody wanted to say it but Klaus knew that this was true. 

People were still not comfortable or accepting of two men being together. That was why they had tried to get between him and Dave too, right? What other possible explanation could there be? And maybe they were right. Maybe it wasn't natural. Maybe it was broken and twisted and wrong. But why did it feel so good when he was with Diego then? And why had he felt so happy and secure when he had been with Dave?

»It's not wrong.« Ben urged gently. »You love him and he loves you and there is nothing wrong about that. You aren't hurting anyone, you're not breaking any laws. Nothing about this is wrong, Klaus.«

And yet he remembered electricity shooting through his brain after he had told Dr. Jones about kissing his brother. Why had they been torturing him if it wasn't wrong? Why had they tortured him if his entire existence wasn't a terrible mistake? And it was a mistake, wasn't it? He shouldn't even be here in the first place. None of them should. Their mothers hadn't consented to give birth to them. Their mothers hadn't known what was happening. They shouldn't exist and their father shouldn’t have bought them from their mother's like farm animals.

He missed Dave and his quiet, deep voice. He had never been able to see him since he died and he felt stupid for ever thinking that the man he loved would stick around for him after his death. Why should he? Ben had. But Ben was Ben. They shared their last two remaining brain cells. No, Dave had moved on from this life into the next and that was okay, right? It should be okay. Klaus shouldn't be so bitter about it.

As Klaus bit back another little sob, he could feel the icy cold on his shoulder again, spreading through his chest within mere seconds. »How about you get out of that tub and go get your walkman?« Ben smiled as Klaus lifted his head just enough to look at Ben again. »Remember? Mom put it into your old room with the change of clothes he got you. And then we try this meditation thing Diego showed us.« 

Of course, Diego hadn't been aware that he was not only teaching Klaus as he taught him how to properly meditate to get his mind off of everything around him. Ben had always been eager to learn new things and he had picked it up quite quickly. Then again, he was a ghost. What could possibly be on Ben’s mind? 

He nodded sharply but as he tried to get up, he froze again. If he would get out of that tub, he would get punished again. Nurse Parker would come and plunge a needle in his skin or she would push him back under the water, or she would tie him up in his room. He couldn't just get up. He had to wait. Those were the rules. 

And he remembered how long he had waited that one time sitting in the tub. She had been supposed to sit at his side and watch over him while he was taking a bath. It was humiliating and horrible and she had made him come to hate bathing. But that one time, she had gone out of the room and she hadn't come back for hours. The night had been dark when she had come back at last and Klaus almost frozen to the core in that god awful winter night in the cold water of his tiny bathtub. 

»Klaus?«

»N-No … N-No, I can't.« He stammered and as if he knew what was wrong, Ben sighed quietly and pointed at the half-open door. Mom had left it ajar when she went to take care of her own business.

»We are home, Klaus. There is no one here who will punish you. No nurses, no doctors. You can do whatever you want. You are free, remember?« 

Freedom was such a weird concept to Klaus after twelve long years of captivity. He didn't know if he would ever get used to it again or if he was instead doomed to live life as a slave forever - captive to his own mind and ruined psyche. Ben was right, though. He was home. He was free. He could do whatever he liked. Even get out of that bathtub and get something nice and cozy to wear from the pile of old clothes of Diego that Mom had put in his old room. He didn't mind wearing Luther and Diego’s old clothes. Quite the contrary. He liked having something of his brothers’ with him. 

With another small nod, Klaus took a deep breath, put the hands on the edge of the tub and pushed himself up into a standing position. Unlike Ben, Klaus didn't care about being naked. He was used to it. He had been paraded around naked in front of so many people in the past. He remembered a room full of people judging him and looking at him as if he would be a wild animal. He remembered them prodding and poking at him. He shook off these weird blurry memories and grabbed for a towel to put around his body, even went as far as to put another one around his head in a turban, a little quirk he had picked up in his teenage years after seeing Allison and Vanya do this. Ben actually chuckled as he saw him like this.

»That's more like it.« His dead brother smiled as Klaus slowly walked out of the bathroom and headed towards his old room. He actually liked sleeping in the attic, even though he had missed his old bedroom.  Sleeping under a blanket of stars where no one could bother him, was actually quite calming. Not to mention that he liked the bit of privacy he got up there with Diego. 

He was using his old bedroom as his base, however, when he was taking a bath or something. Instead of getting dressed, however, Klaus rather took his old walkman that was lying on the bed and put his headphones on. He couldn't smoke weed or take anything else to quiet the ghosts but at least he could try to drown them out with music. That had to be enough, he assumed. 

As the familiar notes of his old favorite songs started blaring into his ears, Klaus flopped down on his old bed for just a moment and closed his eyes. He didn't realize that Ben left his side. He didn't hear the shots being fired through the academy. 

※※※※※※※

There was no time to pause and stare in awe at Luther’s gargantuan body as his shirt was torn off his torso by the spikes of the old chandelier and revealed the secret that Luther had kept from them for so long now. This was a life or death situation and there would be time later to talk about it - if they would survive that was. And if they wouldn't survive, none of this would matter anyway. Now, they needed to either kill those two lunatics or escape unharmed and then they would get plenty of time to talk things through. 

»Vanya!« Diego shouted over the noise of bullets flying everywhere and ripping through furniture. Their house had always been some sort of safe haven no matter how awful their childhood in this house had been. It didn't matter because, in the end, they had known that they could always come back here and be safe. As safe as they could be under Reginald Hargreeves’ watchful eyes at least. The serenity of the ancient home was torn to shreds by a hail of bullets and knives. That was nothing Mom could just fix with a smile and a soft hum on her lips either. »Go, Vanya!« Diego shouted across the hall as he saw how Vanya was shrinking into a niche between two marble columns on the other side of the hall. They were so close to the front door now and yet Vanya couldn't bring herself to move as it seemed.

She was frozen on the spot, her eyes wide and her skin even paler. She was terrified and just like a doe in the headlights of a truck, she was unable to move even with bullets flying all over the place. He wanted to curse at her. She was a liability and she should run but his heart was racing in his chest. He had lost track of one of the two attackers, a larger guy wearing some stupid cartoonish blue mask. He had to find him and he needed to find Klaus. What if he would stumble upon this scene and get hit in the crossfire? Klaus had never been a fighter. Just like Vanya, he was a liability. 

Vanya stared at him in a mixture of shock and confusion as if she didn't even know what he was saying. »Run!« He shouted again and pointed at the wide-open front doors. »For fuck’s sake,  _ now _ , Vanya!« Finally, she moved. Finally, she started running out of the front door and escaped unharmed out into the streets. Diego, however, barely escaped another bullet that almost nicked his left ear.

»Diego!« Luther screamed and as their eyes met across the hall, he got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. »Go get Klaus!« 

He wouldn't argue with Luther in this regard. Just as Luther threw himself at their attacker, Diego started running without thinking. Already, he had this feeling that something had gone terribly wrong and might be completely out of his control. A dark cloud was looming over him, a cold hand gripping his heart as if someone was walking over his grave. 

He all but flew down the next corridor, escaping another bullet just barely before he dove into the staircase leading towards their bedrooms. At least they didn't need to worry about Five. He could soon hear the second attacker, the woman in the pink rabbit mask scream out in pain after he threw one last knife that hit her in the thigh without looking. The fire ceased right as Diego was running up the stairs.

※※※※※※※

As Ben poked his head into the room, Klaus didn't even realize that his brother was shouting something at him. Only as he felt something cold brush over his naked shoulder did he flinch and open his eyes to see Ben’s alarmed face hovering over his own. He ripped his headphones off by instinct at that. »Jesus, Benny…« He muttered quietly but Ben seemed even more impatient with him than he usually was when Klaus was seemingly wasting his time. Not that there was much to do for Ben without him anyway.

»Klaus, get up!« 

»What? What's wrong?« That there clearly was something wrong he could tell just by the way his brother looked at him now. Suddenly, even he could hear the noise ripping through the house. If he wouldn't know any better he would say it sounded like gunshots. 

They were ripping through the house like cannonballs, making his skull almost burst. He had a terrible headache. He always had terrible headaches ever since he came back from the asylum and was forgoing his medication. It was as if all his senses that had been dulled for twelve years were roaring back to life with vigor, each trying to surpass the next. It was all too much input. Too much noise. Too many bright colors, too much going on. Everything was too fast and loud and crazy for him to follow and his head was pounding, pounding, pounding.

»Klaus!« Ben’s voice was loud too. Shrill, even. »Focus! Stay with me now, okay? The house is under attack. There are two people in masks shooting up the place looking for Five. You need to hide now!«

He needed a second or two to register what his brother had just said to him and even longer to fully grasp what he needed to do. Hide? But where? Where would he hide in this place? Under his bed? And where was Diego? If there were people shooting in their house, what if Diego had gotten hurt? Or one of his other siblings? He needed to find him before he could hide! In the end, he just stood frozen in his room for a couple of seconds before Ben managed to urge him into motion at last and made him follow him into the corridor outside of his room. 

»Where do I go?« His mind was blank. He remembered playing hide and seek a lot with his siblings but he had always been the first that had been found by the others. Dad had called it an exercise but Klaus had never understood why. He had been bad at it anyway - just at any other training exercise Dad made them do. 

»Wardrobe!« Ben shot at him and pointed at the closet at the end of the hallway where Mom stored their bed linens. He hurried as quickly as he could and paused in his tracks only as he heard someone running up the stairs to their bedrooms. It wasn't Diego. The footsteps were too heavy for Diego. Luther? Maybe Luther came to get him into safety!

»Klaus come on run!« Ben shouted from where he already took position by the walk in closet in the alcove at the end of the hallway. Klaus, however, stared at the end of the staircase, hoping that he would see Luther any second now. Instead, he came face to face with one of the masked attackers and felt dread wash over him. 

He didn't hear Ben shrieking at him to run. He only heard the thumping of his own heart against his ribcage and white noise in his ears. Only as the man pointed his gun at him did Klaus whirl around and started running. He ran on instinct back to his room. The fire escape, he thought. He could escape through the fire escape!

Klaus had almost reached his room as there was a meaty hand grabbing the towel around his head. The towel got yanked off his head, of course, but the moment was enough for the man to bury his fist in Klaus wet curls, pull his head back and slam his forehead into the door frame. 

There was a shrill little sound reverberating over and over in his head, making his skull pulsate and stars dance in front of his very eyes. He felt pain exploding behind his eyelids as the man thundered his head into the doorframe again before he grabbed him around his hips and dragged him into his room. Panic started to settle into his gut and yet he couldn't even quite tell anymore why he felt the need to feel panicked. Everything was a blur. Nothing seemed to make sense. It was all just chaos. 

Then there was a scream muffled by the mask the man was wearing. He became nauseous as the man whirled around, Klaus still trapped by one of his strong arms. He could hear a shot ring out and as his eyes and his brain had finally caught up with what was happening around him, he saw Diego right in front of him, just a few feet away. 

Red started to blossom on his shirt on his stomach like a beautiful spring rose. His eyes were wide as he slumped to the ground in a heap of pointy bones and flesh. »Diego!« Klaus didn't recognize the voice screeching his brother’s name in a fit of panic and before he realized that it had torn from his own voice, the world went black and blissfully quiet.

 

**-End of Chapter 14-**


	15. Chapter 15

Diego was dead. He was dead. He had seen him fall to the floor. He had seen the blood. He was dead. His brother was dead and it was his fault because Diego had wanted to help him because Klaus had been too weak and too stupid to help himself. Diego was dead and he was being jostled around in the trunk of a car.

»Klaus you need to calm down.«

How could he possibly calm down when Diego was dead? Diego was _dead_! And he was locked in the trunk of a car! It was dark and tight and his heart was racing in his chest. He could feel every bump in the road, his head hitting against the roof of the trunk again and again and again, hitting against the wound that this giant man had inflicted on him earlier.

He was screaming into his gag in terror, trying to get in air through his nose and failing. Failing, failing, failing. He couldn't breathe. He was gasping into the duct tape on his mouth. Diego was dead and he was trapped in a steel coffin and there was no way out and all he could do was scream and scream and scream until his lungs would give out.

※※※※※※※

They had lost. Maybe that was a weird thing to think in a situation as dire as this. However, as they sat in the kitchen, Luther couldn't help but think that they had just lost a war that they hadn't even known they were fighting. The living room was wrecked and in the entry hall, the ancient golden chandelier was lying destroyed in an ocean of glass shards on the ground.

His family knew the secret he was hiding so desperately under his jackets and sweatshirts but he couldn't bring himself to feel embarrassed about that now. Not now. Not with Diego’s blood still on his hands. They had never seen eye to eye. It was as if their father had adopted his greatest nemesis right after he had found Luther just to spite him or as if Diego had been specifically designed to torture and oppose him.

Even as tiny toddlers Diego and Luther had squabbled and fought and annoyed each other to no end. In fact, one of Luther's earliest memories was Diego biting his hand as they had been playing outside in the yard. Granted, Luther had just taken Diego’s toy and had probably deserved the attack. However, he remembered that his other siblings had never reacted so violently towards him. Klaus had mostly just started shrieking or crying when Luther would steal his toys and Ben had taken it with great confusion. Five … Even as toddlers no one would have ever stolen Five’s toys.

His hands were shaking as he brushed them over his face and rubbed away a few stray tears clinging to his face. The ticking of the clock over the kitchen door was deafening and the only noise filling the house. Vanya and Allison sat beside each other across from Luther, their arms wrapped around one another in silent consolation. Vanya had stopped crying a few minutes ago and Allison just stared blankly at the wall behind Luther's left ear. Five, who had returned to the house about an hour ago, was sitting on the countertop next to the sink. His hands were fidgeting for a drink but he didn't get one for himself. He just sat there, his short legs dangling, staring at the ground as if he would find all the answers to his miscalculations down there.

They were two siblings short and it was Luther’s fault. No one would say it but they all knew that this was the truth. They had lost Klaus and Diego was ... It was his fault. He should have kicked those assassins’ asses. He should have been able to beat them and protect his siblings. Now Klaus was gone and Diego … He still had his blood caked under his nails and he knew that it wouldn't just wash off no matter how much he would scrub.

※※※※※※※

The slap against his injured forehead came without warning from behind from the large man in the blue cartoon bear mask. He was tied to a wooden chair with duct tape around his wrists and ankles, clad only in the bath towel he had wrapped around his hips after the bath. It seemed a lifetime ago that he had actually been lying in this bathtub and been tormented by the demons always lingering around him. The only demons around him now were those two people.

He didn't know how much time had past since he had been taken from the academy. It had been daytime when he had taken that bath even though the sky had been darkened by rainclouds. he remembered thunder roaring in the distance and feeling uneasy as Mom had left him alone in the bathroom. He also remembered waking up shortly in the trunk of a car.

He remembered being dragged from the car across a dusty parking lot into a tiny motel room. It had been nighttime when they arrived at his current prison. Now the sun was already rising outside again and Klaus was in agony. Already his body was littered in bruises and he wasn't sure how long he would manage to survive this. Then again … Why would he want to survive anyway?

Hadn't he tried to kill himself again and again in the past? For almost twelve years dying had been his only desire. Fueled only by Dave’s sudden suicide on top of everything else he had to endure. And now Diego was dead. Diego was dead and he was alone. Alone with Ben who was sitting in the corner of the room next to the door. Klaus had not once seen the faces of his kidnappers as he was facing the wall opposite of the two twin beds in his back.

They stayed behind him mostly and when they would face him they would be wearing their masks. Which could possibly only mean that he could perhaps survive this ordeal, as the more logical mind of his provided. They didn't want him to be able to recognize their faces so that could only mean that they were inclined to let him go as soon as they would have gotten out of him what they wanted to know.

Klaus produced a small, almost desperate little chuckle at that thought. It was a scratchy, hollow, pitiful little sound. His throat was burning up and he was parched and his skin cold. March nights were freezing and those two had not yet bothered to switch on the AC in the room to make it warmer for him in his towel.

»What's so funny, you Asshole?« He heard the man groan before he slapped Klaus against the back of his head sharply.

»Ow!« He flinched violently at the assault but heard how the bed was creaking heavily behind him under the weight of the man as he sat down. His entire body was one trembling shaking mess. Not from fear - even though, yes, he was terrified - but from the cold inside the room. He was freezing.

»Well, for one … you spent the last hours beating me senseless and you learned nothing.« He managed to groan out through bloodied teeth, though he was slurring his words so badly that he could almost not understand them himself.

He could taste the copper on his tongue and he didn't even know how long he would have until he would black out from the pain and the fear or his injuries once more. Who knew if he would wake up from that. Not that he cared. Diego was dead. _Dave was dead_. He was all alone. Sure, he still had four siblings left but would they really come to save him? No … No, that was unfair … It was. Was it? They had been seven once and now they were only five because they had lost two brothers. They had gotten Five back and they had lost Diego instead and he wanted … wanted, wanted, wanted to have Diego back so desperately.

»I mean … nobody tells me shit.« It was true, wasn’t it? This had always been true. He was Klaus, the failure. He was the misfit son and brother, he was the black sheep, he was the junkie, he was the crazy one, he was the loud one, the jester, the one who never took anything seriously enough, the one no one could rely on, the one no one would take seriously.

And Klaus, though still not in the right state of mind after twelve years of torture in this asylum, was not nearly naive or stupid enough to even consider that this would change now that he was back with his family. Diego had been the only one who would listen to him in earnest and Diego was dead. He had no one left. »I hate to break it to you … but I am clinically insane - literally. I’m crazy. You assholes kidnapped the wrong guy!«

Oh, and wasn't that just funny? The only person who would have cared to take him back and do whatever those people wanted, was dead because they killed him. And Klaus … Klaus would die too in this chair in this motel room and there was no way around it. He felt at peace as he let out another shaky little laughter at that thought.

The next attack was a lot harder than those two little slaps before. The punch came from the woman this time and sent him and his chair flying to the ground. He knocked his head on the dirty carpet and just like this, his entire world turned black at once. Finally, peace and quiet.

※※※※※※※

»Who were those guys?« Luther was tired as he looked at Five. They had spent all night cleaning up whatever they could clean up or searching the house for clues. He was exhausted and ready to fall asleep right on the spot now. He just wanted to sink into his bed and sleep and act as if everything was still just fine. Although he knew that this was not gonna happen. He would not find sleep so easily. He would not find sleep at all.

They had all gathered around the destroyed room, Vanya and Allison sitting on one of the lesser destroyed sofas while Luther was pacing up and down behind the backrest of the same piece of furniture. Five, on the other hand, was leaning against father’s most favorite armchair. The place was a mess, father’s portrait riddled with bullet holes. The sight pained Luther perhaps more than it should after everything their father had done to them all. Five’s portrait had survived the attack with not even a scratch to it while Klaus’ portrait had fallen from the wall with a giant hole in it. Diego was not the only one of them who had always hated this portrait.

»What do I know?« Five scoffed. »I wasn't here! I don't know what happened.«

»No!« Luther thundered at his brother and would have grabbed him if Five wouldn't have teleported out of the way immediately. »No! This house was attacked! Our family was shot at by those freaks with the animal masks! _I don't know_ doesn't cut it this time, Five! Klaus is gone! They probably took him and we only have each other left so you better tell me now who those people were! Because they were looking for _you_ , Five!«

Five clenched his jaw before he was throwing his hands up in defeat. »Hazel and Cha-Cha!« He let out in a groan.

»Who?«

»Hazel and Cha-Cha.« He repeated quieter and with a heavy sigh. »The best temporal assassins the commission has to offer - well, after me, of course.« He sounded a little too smug for Luther’s liking. Of course, it wasn’t Five’s fault that those two had come to this house and did those things. He had been out there, trying to find out more about what had been done to their brother. He had been out there to help Klaus and yet because he hadn't been here, Klaus had been kidnapped and they could all have been killed.

»And what do they want from you?«

»Oh, I don't know - possibly to stop me from stopping the apocalypse. I could be wrong, of course. Not to mention that I broke my contract with the commission.«

»Okay, guys, that's not important now!« Allison went between her two remaining brothers with an annoyed sigh. She and Vanya had stayed silent until now and just listened to their brothers going back and forth like this. As Allison rose to her feet and quickly walked around the sofa to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, Luther actually flinched away. He felt ridiculous. He probably was ridiculous.

»Whoever they are or whatever they want, they have Klaus and they want to get in contact with you, Five. We have to figure out where they have taken Klaus and how we are going to get him back and we need to do it quickly because as soon as they will realize that Klaus can't give them what they want to hear they will probably get rid of him!«

»They probably already have killed him.« Five shrugged nonchalantly as if they were not talking about the possibility that their brother was dead, as if the possibility wouldn't even faze him in the slightest. It probably didn't. If it was all true what Five had told them about the future, their brother had lived through decades alone in this wasteland of a planet. People tended to go crazy without human contact. Four years alone on the moon had been bad enough already. »They were always quite efficient in what they are doing.«

This time, Luther did jump his brother and grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and pulled him closer. »Then you better get to work, Five, and find our brother before they can kill him or otherwise the end of the world is the last thing you need to worry about!«

Luther let go of him before Allison could step in but gave his brother a shove hard enough to send him to the ground before he stomped out of the destroyed living room. Only briefly he caught a glimpse of Klaus’ portrait lying on the ground before he went into the hall and stomped up the staircase. As soon as they would have gotten Klaus back he would burn this fucking painting to a crisp.

He was done losing siblings. He had let Klaus down once and he wasn't about to let him down again. His siblings thought that he never questioned their father and maybe that was true in its own way but it wasn't like Luther was an emotionless puppet either. He had trusted their father not to lie to them and not to ask them to do anything they weren't willing to do. He had never stopped one of them from leaving, always granted them their freedom if they had insisted on it.

Yet, he had lied to them as he had told them Klaus had died all those years ago. Luther remembered the day clearly still. He remembered coming home from that mission victorious and ready to report to his father and earn his praise. His first mission as the leader of this team without the supervision of his father and yet all joy and pride about it had drained from him when their father had called for them to assemble in the living room to tell them about Klaus.

And he remembered Diego as clearly as he could still see the scene play out in front of his very eyes over and over and over again. For a moment, he had been certain that his brother would pass out on the spot at the news with their father’s eyes drilling into him. He hadn't fainted or wavered but he had been furious, he had been inconsolable, he had screamed and thrown shit and demanded to see him.

When their father had told them that he had already sent Klaus’ body away to be cremated Diego had looked ready to puke or as if someone had punched him in the gut with a sledgehammer. All life had left his brother that day as if someone had ripped his heart straight out of his chest and crushed it. He had become bitter and cruel after that and soon after the funeral, Diego had left the house only to return for father's funeral years later.

He remembered what Diego had said at father’s funeral and how much he had hated him for it because it was the truth and he had just been too afraid to say it himself. Diego had never been afraid to say anything. _He was a monster_. _He was a bad person and a worse father. The world’s better off without him._

Luther wasn't blind, despite everything his siblings would say. He was maybe a little simpler than his other siblings, maybe a bit slower too and not as perceptive as, say, Diego was, but blind he was not. He had seen the way Klaus and Diego had looked at each other back then when they had all been just kids in this house. They had all seen it - the stolen glances, the lingering touches. Back then, as a stupid teenager, he hadn't known what to think about that or how to feel about it. His first reaction had been one of disgust but as he had grown, he had realized that the feelings Diego and Klaus had had for each other were in no way different than the feelings Luther had had for Allison - and still had to this day.

He had been cruel to Diego yesterday. He had been cruel as he had told him to put an end to this relationship between him and Klaus even though their feelings still seemed strong to this day. Perhaps it was a bit of jealousy that had made him say these things. He couldn't deny that, as he had caught Diego and Klaus in the attic, seemingly so happy and content with each other, he had felt the pang of jealousy in his chest. They had something that he would probably never quite get. Sure, Allison still liked him and coming back together it was as if they had never been apart. But now that she knew what was hidden underneath his shirts and jackets … She would never look at him in the same way again. That was just a fact. He was a monster and a beautiful woman like Allison deserved better than this. Their lives and all of this around them was not a family, after all. Allison wasn’t Belle and he was not the Beast.

And maybe, just maybe, the jealousy he felt towards Diego and Klaus hadn't been entirely for their relationship either. Maybe he had been a bit jealous that Klaus would go to Diego for help and comfort and not him. He was the leader of this group, after all. He was Number One. Shouldn't his siblings come to him for such things? Then again, perhaps he had never been the most approachable to them. He couldn't remember Klaus ever coming to him for help. Maybe that was why their relationship wasn't as strong and grounded. Maybe that was why Luther hadn't known how to feel back on that god awful day when father had told him about Klaus’ suicide or how he should feel when they had then learned that Klaus was still alive.

He had felt empty. Just empty. Klaus death had been like a personal failure to him. He had lost Five, then Six and then he had lost Four. And now … No. He couldn't think about it.

However, as he reached their bedrooms, that was all he could think about. Diego’s blood had dried on the tiles of the hallway, crusted in the grit between the small tiles. The stains would never quite go away no matter how furiously Grace would scrub them as soon as she would find the time to do so. And there, at the door frame of Klaus’ bedroom, was blood too, already dried into the wood, staining it forever into a dull red.

He felt like he couldn't breathe just standing here and looking at the blood on the ground and on the walls. When he had finally reached their bedrooms after Hazel and Cha-Cha had fled their house, Diego had been lying only a few feet away from Klaus’ bedroom door. He had fallen close to the spot where Luther was standing now and then he had dragged himself up, grabbing the walls for support and leaving bloody handprints all over as he had tried to get to the bedroom. One of their attackers, the one who had gotten Klaus, had escaped through Klaus’ window over the fire escape and Diego had probably wanted to go after them before he had collapsed one final time.

Luther felt sick as he just stood there and tried to breathe. The air smelled like copper. It was heavy and nauseating and for once in his life, Luther just wanted to flee from this house and his responsibilities and everything. For once in his life, he wished he had never been adopted into this family.

※※※※※※※

_He was back in the mausoleum again, scratching with small fimble fingers on the heavy metal doors in his desperation to get away from the corpses inside. He was a child again, terrified and screaming at the top of his lungs with no hope left that his father would actually come and save him. Perhaps he would die in this place. Perhaps he was already dead. But if he was dead, why were the spirits and ghouls still screeching at him and clawing at his skin to rip him to shreds? He couldn't escape. He could feel their claws digging into his skin and rip his flesh from his bones. He could see the blood pooling around him, pooling out of his body like an endless ocean drip-drip-dripping and rushing out of him._

_»Help, Dad!« He screeched as loud as he could, the sound alien and shrill and ringing in his ears like something from a nightmare. »Ben! Diego!« But no one came to help him. No one ever came to help him. Not in the mausoleum, not in the darkness of his room at night in the academy, not in his little white room inside the asylum._

_Electricity was shooting through his body. He felt it spasming through his body, making it twitch and kick and struggle. He was helpless as he was dragged down the endless white corridor past the cells of the other patients. He could see hands reaching out to him through the small barred windows in the door, almost reaching him, almost scratching off his flesh._

_He could see a door standing open at the end of the hallway and the closer he got, the more his panic raised and raised and raised in his chest, the harder his heart fluttered until it would explode into a thousand tiny little pieces._

_He could see the body dangling from the ventilation grit in the ceiling. He could see it swinging back and forth going like a pendulum, slow and steady until it would be still. He could see the body twitching and jerking and then stopping altogether. He could see Dave’s feet hanging lifelessly only inches above the floor, his bright, beautiful blue eyes wide open in horror as Klaus reached the door to his room. The scream that ripped from his throat came without any sound at all. He felt it tearing at the insides of his lungs but there was no sound and Klaus could only stare at Dave hanging from the ceiling before the demons who had taken a hold of him were dragging him further and further down the hallway._

_He could see another door open a bit further down the hallway and he could already see the body lying on the ground there in a pool of blood. He threw himself at the demons in the white uniforms this time, clawed at them, kicked and screamed and tried to get away while they relentlessly dragged him further and further and further down the path into the abyss of insanity._

»I don't know … I can't tell you where Five is … I don't know anything … Please … Please, just let me go … Please, I don't know anything.«

»Be strong Klaus.« Ben urged from his spot in the corner but the incessant babbling of that Russian lady near the window was driving him insane. She wouldn't stop and the words just tumbled over his lips without Klaus being able to control them in any way. He tried pleading and begging and nothing seemed to sway those lunatics. Nothing was ever enough. They wouldn't stop until they would have found Five and then they would kill his brother and it would be his fault. He rather died than giving up Five and losing another sibling. Not that this would be a big loss to the world anyway. His siblings would be probably better off without him in the long run anyway when they wouldn't need to worry about their crazy brother anymore.

Another hit in his stomach almost made him puke. His head was dripping wet over his bloodied and broken body. They had dunked his head into a bucket of water just minutes ago until he had almost drowned. And still, no matter how much he pleaded with them, they wouldn't stop. He was on the floor now as the bat came swinging down on his stomach once more. He was too weak to flee anyway, no need to tie him to a chair any longer.

»Please, I don't know…« He sobbed again as he coughed up blood. »I don't know … I don't know…« That babbling Russian woman was driving him crazy. She wouldn't shut up and there was nothing he could do about it.

»This would be much easier if we would know who we are torturing.« The woman groaned from underneath her mask.

»What do you mean?« Her partner asked with a tired groan and scratched his face underneath his mask. To them, all of this seemed to be routine. They were going about torturing Klaus as if it was just another day at the office.

»Section 76, sub A, of the training manual. Torture works best when you know who you are torturing. We should go dig up some dirt on that fucker.« He almost didn't hear them talk about that rambling coming from the window where the dead Babushka was staring outside.

»Hey, haven't we seen his face on the news when we first came here?« Klaus barely had the patience to keep listening to them and yet he knew that Ben was doing exactly that at least. Klaus, on the other hand, was barely clinging to consciousness at this point. He just wanted to sleep and was terrified of sleeping at the very same time. When he would close his eyes, he would see Diego dead on the floor again and again. He would see Dave hanging from the ceiling again and again.

»Yes! You are right. Something about a dangerous patient escaping from a mental asylum?«

»Well, he said he was crazy.« The man chuckled and the woman grabbed her jacket.

»Tie him up and put him in the closet. We are going on a little excursion.«

※※※※※※※

Seeing Diego lying on the cot in the infirmary felt strange to him. He didn't know what to do or to think. He hadn't been to the room after he had carried his brother up here hours ago, hoping that Mom might still be able to save his brother. Now, Diego was resting on that bed and his skin was ashen and pale and he looked like a corpse.

He looked dead in the bright light of the overhead lamp.

He looked dead but his brown eyes were open and tired and dazed from the morphine Grace - _Mom_ \- had given him. He looked dead but he was still clinging to life, even if barely so and the heart monitor gave a small steady beep-beep-beep by the side of his bed. He looked dead but the oxygen mask on his face pumped air into his lungs to help fill them because Diego himself was too weak.  

Luther still had Diego’s blood coated under his fingernails but at least his brother was alive.

 

**-End of Chapter 15-**


	16. Chapter 16

Inside the closet, it was dark and scary. A closet shouldn't be so dark and scary. And neither should this tiny white room he had once been locked in and to where he always seemed to return when he closed his eyes. Yet it was. It was terrifying and small and the walls were moving in on him relentlessly. He could feel hands on his skin. He could feel nails digging into his flesh and ripping him apart piece by piece. He was falling apart. He could feel his hair fall out. _Feel_ it. And suddenly, even in the darkness of the closet, he was back at the asylum, sitting in a metal chair in a tiled white room. He was seventeen again, just a child again.

There was a light flashing in his face, a picture taken without his consent. There was the buzzing sound of a hacksaw, hacking through his hair. He could see his curls fall to the ground one by one until there was nothing left on his head anymore and as he brushed his hand over his scalp, he could only feel the bristle stubbles where his hair once was.

He wanted to weep for his hair but that would be childish and stupid and his eyes were dry and his throat tied shut anyway. He just kept sitting there in this cold chair on his naked butt until someone pulled him up and into another room. The water was cold as he was forced into the bathtub with a faceless nurse watching over him. The water was cold and cutting into his skin, _boiling_ his skin until there was nothing left but blisters on his arms and legs and stomach.

He could feel the hands all over him at night. He felt them burn him, mark him, tear him apart. And he was tired - too tired to do anything about it. He allowed them to take him no matter how they wanted. He allowed them to rip him to shreds - and in the morning he wouldn't know any longer what had happened. Or at least he could pretend. He could lie in his bed on his back and stare at the ceiling and pretend that nothing had happened, pretend that he was still in control over his body and that the unspeakable terror that he would feel at night would not have him in a tight clutch.

»Klaus!« A voice called out for him but he was drowning. The cold water was closing over his head like waves. He had no chance to escape. The icy floods filled his lungs and made him unable to breathe or think. The water filled his lungs and his mind and his thoughts and his heart. As he blinked through the dark waters above him, there was no light left. He couldn't see the beams of sunlight dance on the surface anymore. Instead, he only saw Ben in front of him, his chest and stomach torn open and his organs spilling everywhere, the monster had vacated from his body forever and left a gaping hole where it once resided.

And he could see Five ripped limb from limb from limb lying on the ground, his torn off fingers twitching. He had jumped too far, too quickly and he had ripped himself apart doing so. And there was his sister, Allison, with her throat torn out and Luther, an abomination half ape half human, dead and stuck in a nightmarish transformation. Vanya was on the ground with a bullet stuck in her head and there was Diego … Diego … _His_ Diego … ripped to shreds by a thousand blades.

»Klaus!« He heard screaming all around him - screeching, wailing, sobbing. The ghosts were demanding his attention but he was in a coffin and he couldn't even move his hands to scratch at the lid. He was trapped. Trapped, trapped, _trapped_ and there was no way out. No way out. His screams were swallowed by the duct tape over his mouth. It was biting into his cheeks and the sound got trapped in his throat.

»Klaus! Come on!« A voice somewhere behind him urged. He knew that voice. Deep down inside of him, he knew it and yet he couldn't say who it was. But wasn't it this voice which so often gave him comfort? Ben. _Ben!_ He screeched his brother’s name but it was swallowed by the duct tape and there was no hope left. »Remember what Diego taught you. Breathe. Slowly. Just breathe and focus.«

He took one shuddering breath and allowed the air to fill his lungs. And another until the closet doors were ripped open.

※※※※※※※

»Stay down!« He only produced a low guttural groan. »Jesus fucking Christ, Diego! Stay down!« Luther’s meaty fists were trying to keep him down on the bed and though he struggled there was no chance he would be able to get past him. Even under normal circumstances, it would be hard to get past Luther but there was no chance now in his current predicament. He hated to admit it, but he was pretty much screwed right now and so he _allowed_ Luther to push him back down on the bed. Of course, he would punch Luther later for daring to do such a thing. For now, however, he sunk back into his pillows with a miserable little groan.

»You can't keep me here forever.« He growled.

»Yes, yes, we know, Tiger.« Five shot back from the doorway with an eye roll. »And we tremble in fear of your wrath. Maybe you try to get better before you’ll kill us all, okay?«

»I can't-« He stopped himself as another wave of pain filled his brain and made him grit his teeth. »I need to find Klaus. I need to help Klaus.«

»You can't help him if you are dead.« Luther sighed. »You were shot, Diego. That's no small feat. You can't be running around hunting down those maniacs on your own now or you’re dead in no time. You hardly survived this, to begin with!«

»Oh, is that concern I hear in your voice, Number One?«

Luther looked at him like he was tempted to punch him despite his injuries. Good to see that everything was still how it was supposed to be between them. At least one thing that was still as it was supposed to be. But Klaus was supposed to be here too and yet he wasn't. He wasn't here. He was gone. He had been taken. He was afraid. Maybe he was already dead. No. Klaus was tough. He had survived twelve years in a literal hell and he would survive this as well until Diego would come to save him.

At least that was the only thing Diego could set his hopes on now.

※※※※※※※

When he was ripped from the closet, Klaus first thought that they would start beating him again. They didn't. It was the first time that he saw them without their masks then and deep down he knew that this was a very bad sign for his immediate future. There was a box in the middle of the room. No, not a box … More like an old fashioned trunk. The woman stepped over to it and opened it just as the man ripped the duct tape from his mouth.

»You can always tap out, Buddy. We don't like to torture you. We just want your brother so you would make it easier for all of us if you would just tell us where he is.«

»I don't know.« He sobbed. »I don't know anything. Please. I don't know anything.«

The man let out a deep sigh and dragged Klaus over to the trunk. Only then it dawned on him what would happen next.

»No!« He shrieked on top of his lungs. »No! No, no, no, please! Please, I don't know anything!« He clawed at the man but was helpless in his tight grip. There was no escape for him and before he knew it, he was thrown into the way too small trunk, his limbs contorted and folded so that he would fit and the top slamming shut, taking away every bit of light.

※※※※※※※

He had been released from the infirmary two days after his initial injury but was then forced to either stay in his own bed or on the sofa in the living room after his siblings had cleaned it up to their best abilities. He hated to admit it but he was out of commission for now. Diego had been injured often enough in his time as a vigilante but he had never been injured that seriously. He was lucky that the bullet had not pierced his lungs or lodged in his spine and crippled him. It had been a clean shot, miraculously avoiding any major organs.

He knew how lucky he was to still be breathing, yet, he didn't feel lucky at all. How could he feel lucky when he didn't know what Klaus was suffering through right now? He had failed him. He had promised to protect him and yet he had failed him. He was here now, lying around uselessly, unable to do anything to help the man he loved - his brother.

He was useless. Completely useless.

Maybe it was this thought that compelled him to get out of his bed. It was a slow, excruciating process but he managed it anyway, holding on to his bedside table and then his dresser as he finally stood. The whole room swayed and tilted to the side and he knew that it was a bad idea right away. Yet, he soldiered through despite the spinning in his head or the thumping in his chest as he moved on and out of his room. His eyes fell upon Klaus’ open bedroom door and on the blood on the wood of the doorframe.

He hesitated for just a moment before he shuffled over. Klaus’ room had been a place he had avoided for such a long time. It had been a place he had feared and then a place he had sought out for reverence. Now it was a testament of his failure. As he stood in the doorframe and held onto it for support, he stared at the writings on the walls all around the room. The frantic scribblings of a man who had gone completely insane. He remembered walking in on Klaus one night as he had scribbled frantically over and over the words the dead had shrieked at him in relentless torment.

None of it made sense but the writings on the wall haunted him ever since he had first seen it. _How do I know who I am?_ Over and over again all across the walls. He remembered taking the sharpie from Klaus’ trembling fingers, remembered pulling him into his arms and holding him close until he stopped sobbing, until he stopped trembling. He remembered holding him close until he fell asleep and he remembered leaving him here, curled on his side, his curly head on the pillows. He had looked so beautiful then. His face had been so soft and gorgeous, his hair a curly mess on the pillow, perfect and innocent - and yet tormented by demons, tormented by his already growing addiction. And it had only been a few months after that night that Ben had died and only a little while after that that Klaus had left the house for the next twelve years.

He felt sick remembering that night when he had found Klaus writing on those walls. He wanted to paint over it, make it all disappear. He wanted to get rid of the evidence of his insanity.

»You should be in bed.« Luther. Of course, his _big brother_ would snoop around and find him. »If you keep running around like this, you will tear open your wound again.« He knew that Luther tried to be comforting and brotherly toward him. Yet, it was so out of place and awkward that he didn't quite know what to make of it. He would have argued with Luther if he wouldn't feel so weak on his legs now.

»I’m not a baby, Luther.« He growled as Luther took his elbow and directed him slowly back to his room.

»Why did you get up in the first place? If you wanted something you could have called. Do you want to go back to the living room? I can help you.«

»No, Luther. No, I didn't need anything and no, I don't want to go to the living room. I want to do something. I want to find our brother and save him if he isn't already dead while you guys are only sitting on your asses because you couldn't care less about him!«

»We are not just sitting on our asses!« Luther huffed and walked over into Diego’s room and helped him back into his bed. »We are doing what we can to find Klaus, Diego. We are just as worried about him as you are.«

»I doubt that!«

»Just because I am not trying to sleep with him it doesn't mean I wouldn't love him and be worried for him, Diego!«

»It's still not the same!«

»What do you-«

»I failed him!« Diego erupted. »I let him down! I promised him to protect him and keep him safe and now he is gone and perhaps dead already! And I have not done anything- I have … I failed him and I can't- I can't lose him again!«

The hug took him by surprise as it came and although his first instinct was to fight his brother he actually allowed it and he allowed the sob that tore from his throat.

※※※※※※※

There were not many happy memories he had of his childhood but there was this one he could always come back to. He was sitting in the bathtub again, much younger than he was now. He had to have been four or five perhaps, small enough, at the very least, that he could fit into the tub with both Diego and Ben. Mom was just outside the bathroom cleaning something up and letting them play in the water for a little while. She had allowed them to take their toys with them. Except for Mr. Sniffles, Klaus’ teddy who was keeping watch over the three boys from the sink.

Their mom had quickly learned that she could easily put her three even numbers in the bathtub together while Luther and Five could only go take a bath separately - Already headstrong and aggressive towards their other siblings while Vanya and Allison would just play peacefully. There was a reason why Diego, Ben, and Klaus were always the last of them to take a bath though. Already there was water splashed absolutely everywhere around the small room - mostly by Klaus.

He was squealing with laughter as he was splashing Ben with water. His brother seemed tempted to unleash his inner monster on him because of his antics, not fully in control of it yet. Of course, adult Klaus knew that Benny would never learn how to fully control the monsters inside of him. Diego was under the water, waiting for his brother to make the call so that together they could take on Benny.

»Release the Kraken!« Klaus yelled with a shrill giggle as Diego burst from beyond the murky depths of the bathtub to jump Ben. And he remembered their mother standing in the doorway, a small laugh escaping her as she leaned into the door with a soft smile on her face.

As he opened his eyes, only darkness surrounded him. The room around him was completely silent. Had his attackers left? Or were they asleep? He kicked at the top of the box he was in but it wouldn't give. He screamed into his gag and threw himself from one side to the other, trying to get anything done at least. He needed to escape and yet he had no power here. He was helpless and he had been helpless for so long. Helpless, helpless, helpless. He was the lookout. Never one of those in on the action. He had no real power. Nothing of worth or significance to offer to the team, just a power that tormented him.

He couldn't even move this fucking box in any shape or form. He was too weak. He was too helpless on his own - always reliant on the help of his siblings. Even Vanya was stronger than him! At least she had a life! At least she knew who she was! And here he was again, floating through his own personal hell, unable to do anything. And Ben was gone. He couldn't hear him, couldn't see him. He was just gone and silent and everything around him was dark.

His heart was beating so fast that he was certain it would explode every second now. He was terrified. Soon they would get him out of here and they would put a bullet to his head or they would beat him to death and then he would have wasted his life without the chance of ever living it. And Diego was dead. Diego was dead and he had never told him how much he loved him. Well, maybe he would see him again when he would die too. Maybe the afterlife wasn't so bad. But he didn't want to die. He screamed louder and kicked harder and his heart beat faster and faster and faster and then - it stopped.

Blissful nothing took hold of him. From one moment to the other, the darkness around him had made way for a black and white sky above him. He felt oddly peaceful as he was lying on his back and staring into the sky. Despite the lack of color, he knew that it was a beautiful sunny day. He could feel the warm rays of sunlight on his face and pebbles digging and biting softly into the skin of his naked back. Oh, he could lie here and watch the clouds move lazily across the sky forever or listen to the sound of a breeze in the leaves in the trees around him and the chirping of the birds.

Still, after a moment or two of taking in a few deep breaths, he slowly rose to his feet. It was a surprise to him that he didn't feel any pain and as he looked down on himself, he realized that his injuries were all gone. There was no blood left on him either but he was still in this stupid bath towel. Briefly, he wondered if he was dead and would now forever haunt this earth in nothing but a towel around his hips. The thought didn't really bother him, though. He was fresh and save and healed and felt calm and at peace and there were worse things on this earth than haunting people in nothing but a bath towel. He couldn't hear his own heartbeat but that didn't really concern him. As he looked around himself, he noticed a young girl on a bike headed his way down the avenue he had woken up in that was leading a narrow path through a forest so he waved at her.

»Oh. Yoo-hoo!« She came to a stop in front of him after he walked a little closer. »Hello.« Being insane had the perk that no matter how weird any situation might be to other people, it didn't really matter or scare someone like him. He just rolled with it. Hell, he had seen weirder shit than a world devoid of color and a small dark-haired girl on a bike in an old fashioned dress and with flowers in the little basket at her handlebars.

»Almost didn't see you.« She replied calmly. She didn't look bothered by him in the slightest - not even by his lack of clothing. Apparently, her parents hadn't told her enough about stranger danger. Well, not that good old Reggie would have done so but he was sure that Reginald would have at least told him something like ‘if a man only wearing a towel comes at you and talks to you - run the other direction’. »Keep on riding around here. So pale and all. They don't have any sun down there?«

»Down there? Where am I?« Now he was confused. Still, this was not nearly as weird as the shit he had seen in the asylum.

»Where do you think?«

»I'm not sure. I'm agnostic, so-«

»Doesn't really matter. You can't stay here.«

»Why not?«

»To be blunt, I don't really like you all that much.«

»Mm. Yeah … Me neither.« Because of him, Diego was dead, after all. He hadn't even been able to protect Diego. No … Diego had wanted to save him from getting kidnapped and now he was dead. Wherever Klaus Hargreeves went, he took with him chaos and misery. That was just how it was. So would it be really this far fetched that God herself wouldn't like him? Assuming that this little girl was indeed God and he was indeed dead and in … Well … Heaven? Who would have thought that he would go to Heaven? Maybe that was the weirdest thing about all of this. »But wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to love all of us?«

She only scoffed at his words. »Where’d you get that idea? I made you so I can pick and choose. And you don't rub me the right way.«

»Wait. You made us? You made _me_?«

»Well, I made everything else, so I must've made you. Why? Do you have another idea?«

»Maybe. A couple. I don't know.«

»Well, then, keep them to yourself. Time is flying, so hurry up. He’s waiting for you.«

»Who is?«

Instead of answering him, she just pointed out at a clearing in the forest around them, where Klaus could see an old fashioned water tower and right underneath a small wooden cabin. he thought about Dave, at first. For some odd reason, that was where his mind was going. But Dave had not once shown himself to Klaus so why would he be waiting for him now? And then he thought about all the times he and Diego had been sitting on the windowsill in the attic as kids, looking out at the sky and dreaming of a future somewhere out there, far away from the city. Diego had always wanted to leave the city, find somewhere quiet and peaceful to live. As he looked at the cabin, a small smile spread across his face before he looked at God again.

»Diego.« He smiled and it was less of a question and more a statement. She looked at him and smiled ever so slightly before Klaus ran off into the scrub in just his towel as quickly as the towel allowed him to run without falling down. Not that he would have cared. God probably didn't care either.

»Diego!« He called out as he ran towards the cabin but as he reached the door and barged through it, the cabin had already morphed into a barbershop straight out of the forties. A radio was playing softly in one corner of the shop. It was deserted, void of customers and employees. Void of Diego or Dave or anyone Klaus might have wanted to see. With a heavy sigh, he walked over to one of the chairs further in the back and slumped into it.

On the wall across from him, he could see a photo gallery and noticed that they showed his family. They were all there. Luther, Diego, Allison, Five, Benny, Vanya, Dad … Dave. There was no photo of him but that was hardly a surprise. Before he could try and make sense of any of this, a cape was put around his shoulders from behind and soon after someone put a warm wet washcloth around his face and turned his chair around.

»Oh yeah … that feels so nice.« He mumbled into the cloth. A warm hand rested securely on top of his head as he was spun around. He felt oddly safe and secure at this moment even though he didn't know why or who the other person was. Maybe it really was Diego and this right here was the afterlife his brother had made for himself. Why not? Diego liked playing with knives. A barbershop seemed fitting.

»What in God’s name took you so long?« He knew that voice.

With a sinking feeling of deep disappointment in his stomach, Klaus realized who he was dealing with as he slowly pulled the cloth from his face. »Dad.« As he looked at Sir Reginald Hargreeves, he didn't even know what to think or feel. He watched how the old man prepared the shaving cream as if this situation would be normal. He watched him and thought about the horrors he had survived in the past twelve years after his father - the one person who should have always protected him - had thrown him to the wolves.

»I expected my son who can conjure the dead to have brought me forth days ago after your brother broke you out of the asylum.« Reginald said calmly as he put a towel on Klaus’ left shoulder. He was working with the utmost care and precision as always, his eyes focused on the task, never on his son whom he had tortured and driven to the brink of insanity until he hadn't been able to live without drugs in his system. Sometimes, Klaus wondered if his father had even known what had been done to Klaus at the asylum.

»Oh. Yeah, well, you see-« His words were cut off as his father put shaving cream all around his jaw and smeared it over his mouth to shut him up only shortly. When he was able to speak again, he did so with newfound bitterness. »You see, maybe throwing me into an insane asylum didn't really work wonders for my ability - or my psyche, Daddy dearest.«

»Don't you dare using me or the asylum as an excuse for your weakness. Instead of using your abilities to conjure me, you were fooling around with your own brother again.« His voice still possessed the old sharpness and anger that his father had always used on Klaus in the past. It shouldn't be this much of a surprise, he assumed. His father had always been oh so very disappointed in him, after all.

»Oh right, well, yeah … You had nothing to do with it. Locking me in a mausoleum with corpses when I was a child. Throwing me into this asylum when I was seventeen for twelve whole years because I overdosed once? No, you're right, it's irrelevant - just like it's irrelevant that I was tortured for twelve years straight until I forgot my own name. Or just as irrelevant as you not telling my siblings the truth and leaving them to believe I had killed myself.«

As Reginald moved in to bring the razor to his jaw, Klaus gave him a warning little glance. »Ah-ah-ah-ah. Careful, Dad.«

»Don't worry, you're already dead.«

»Oh.« He mumbled and closed his eyes, feeling oddly at peace even though he probably shouldn't. He didn't even feel anger as he was talking to his father. He felt numb. Devoid of any emotions. Maybe his father was just not worth the effort. That was what Dave would have told him. He recalled all those times he had talked to Dave about his father and his childhood, how he had cried to him about the horrors he had lived through and how Dave had told him, again and again, to not waste any thought on his dear old papa any longer. »Well, that's a relief.«

»You children like to blame everything on me.«

»Well, you were a sadistic prick. Not to mention the world’s worst father.« He said opening his eyes again to look at his father while he was carefully dragging the blade across his skin before wiping it clean on the towel on Klaus’ shoulder. He didn't feel afraid of the old man as he had as a teenager. He felt safe in his hands despite everything. What an odd thing. Maybe that was this famed sense of basic trust every child had in their parent no matter if adopted or not. »I mean … have you ever stopped and asked yourself why I was shooting up in the first place?«

»I just wanted you children to live up to your potential. You especially. You're my greatest disappointment, Number Four. You only scratched the surface of what you were truly capable of. If only you'd focused.« Of course, his father would not stop to mull over the question that Klaus had just directed at him. Of course, he would not stop to consider what he had said. He was infallible, after all, and Klaus’ addiction only the result of Klaus’ own weakness.

»Wait, wait, wait. What … What potential?« But his father didn't even listen to him.

»No, instead, you pump yourself full of poison because you're afraid. Afraid of what? The dark?« He breathed out a sharp little laugh. »Not even Ashcroft could help you through his experimentations!«

»You know, I suggest you get down off your high horse there, dear Papa. You never had our best interests at heart! You wouldn't have put me through twelve years of hell if you wanted me to live up to my potential. And as for your good friend Ashcroft…« He scoffed and almost got nicked by the blade for it. »He was an even bigger monster than you were. And … And look at Diego. Look what you've done to him back then. You made him believe I had killed myself and he ran around for twelve years unable to cope with that guilt that he hadn't been able to save me. You destroyed his life. You destroyed my life. And now I am dead and will never be of any use because you threw me into that tiny cell and allowed them to put my brain into a blender until nothing was left. You allowed them to shoot electricity through me. You allowed them to drown me and drown me and drown me.«

»Not an ideal solution, I confess. But I knew that the world would soon need you, need all of you, and I had to do what was necessary.« His father just pulled his head to the other side not caring for the tear that ran down Klaus’ left cheek at this. His words were cruel as always.

»I knew that, if I would not put a stop to your habit, you would run away and get yourself in even bigger trouble, Number Four. I knew you would throw yourself into danger, put more and more poison into your body until you would have died alone out there in some alleyway behind a dumpster. Locking you up was the only solution that would keep you away from the drugs and from the men that would take advantage of you. I did what I had to do to protect you. And about Number Two … I knew he would get over it when he would learn that you are still out there. And I knew that he would break you out when he would learn the truth. Number Two never learned to consider the consequences of his actions. Everything I did, everything I put you through, it was to prepare you, all of you, for something bigger than yourselves. You never understood that.«

»We were-« He stopped his father's hand as he felt the first sob in his throat ready to strangle him. »We were just kids. Little kids.« And, for just a second, Klaus thought that he saw something in his father's eyes that he had never seen before. Compassion? Warmth? He really was crazy.

»You were never just kids. You were meant to save the world.«

And as his father went back to shaving him - such an intimate little thing - Klaus struggled to keep up with all this new information. »Wait. So you knew … knew all about this? About the apocalypse?« Diego had told him all about it even though he had hardly understood it then. But he remembered how Diego had told him all about the return of Five to the academy during one of their lazier afternoons together in the living room as he had tried to paint and Diego doing some minor stretching as if it wouldn't distract him.

»I knew that I had to bring you all back together, one way or another. The fate of the world depended on it.«

»What? What are you saying?« His father had his left hand on the back of his head now, his fingers in his curls like a real father would do when trying to comfort his kid and Klaus felt safe with his hand on the back of his head.

»The only way to get you all back together was something … momentous.« And as he said this, he took the razor and made a gesture across his neck as if slitting it. Only then, the truth sank in and it was horrifying in its own way even though he should feel unfazed by it completely. He hadn't been sure what to feel about his father's death before. He hadn't been particularly happy to hear about it and he hadn't been saddened by it as well. He had felt numb to the truth and yet, now that he realized what had really transpired, there was a stone in his stomach weighing him down.

»No … You don't mean … you killed yourself?«

»Mhm.«

»Oh, Christ … you could never do things the easy way, could you? You couldn't have picked up a phone? Free me from the asylum?«

»Would you have stayed if I would have taken you back home?« His father asked with the glint of understanding buried deep in his blue eyes as he looked at him. »Now listen to me, Number Four. What I’m about to say is of great importance.«

And then, even before Klaus could begin to understand any of this, his father was gone and he was back in the darkness of his tiny wooden chest before his world turned upside down. Fresh air streamed into his lungs and he lay on the scratchy ugly carpet of the dirty motel room, sucking in air like a newborn baby.

 

**-End of Chapter 16-**


	17. Chapter 17

If there was one thing that Diego Hargreeves hated with a burning hot passion, it was asking for help. Any kind of help. He was too proud. That was at least what his siblings would say - and they would be right about that. Diego was prideful. That was nothing new. Yet, he wouldn't have thought that he would have as hard a time calling Eudora as he had. He didn't like calling his ex-girlfriend over to help him find his brother. But Klaus was gone for a few days now and they were still no closer to finding him. Needless to say, Diego was done leaving all the detective work to his siblings.

So, when Eudora arrived at the mansion around noon on that day, Diego had to actually bite his tongue so that he wouldn't say anything stupid to her. He needed her help. As much as he hated to accept or admit to it. He needed her help and so he couldn't do his usual Diego-thing and insult her own pride. It was for Klaus’ sake.

»You sounded so serious on the phone.« Eudora said as she came into the living room after Grace had let her in and led her to the living room. »I came right away. What the hell happened to you?« Diego was still confined to either the sofa or his bed and he had to admit that there was no way that he would move around too much anyway with his injury. Last night he had suffered a fever and had to be monitored the entire time by either Grace or one of his siblings - which he had hated. He didn't like to be babied. He didn't like to be vulnerable and in need of any kind of help from anyone.

Eudora seemed alarmed enough as she found him lying on the sofa with his shirt off and a bandage thickly wrapped around his torso. Mom had just changed his bandages and he hadn't been able to get his shirt back on after that.

»It's just a scratch.«

She rolled her eyes and took a seat on the coffee table right across from him. Would he be sitting upright with his feet firmly planted on the ground, their knees would be touching. A long time ago, the thought would have excited him - and wasn’t that just sad in and of itself?  

»Diego.« Her voice was as stern as her face was serious now. »Stop the shit right away. I’m not here to waste my time on your antics, okay? Is this why you called me?« She gestured towards the bandages and tilted her head to the side in this manner that she would always use when she tried to piece things together. She looked like an owl like that. Back in the day, he had always found this incredibly charming and cute.

»I got shot.« Diego finally admitted with a small shrug and as nonchalant as he possibly could. Eudora, however, didn't seem to think that this wouldn't be a big deal as her eyes grew huge. Before she could ask any more questions, however, Diego continued. Otherwise, he might lose his confidence. »Three days ago, two people in masks came to this house and started shooting at us.«

»Why?«

»I don't know.« He lied and schooled his face into a neutral expression. »Perhaps because we are the Umbrella kids? Perhaps because we haven't been all together in one place for twelve years? It's not important. They took Klaus. _That's_ important.«

»They took Klaus?« Eudora seemed almost a little too shocked for someone who didn't even really know Klaus. There was a new rush of sympathy swelling in Diego’s chest at that. Eudora’s concern was born out of their old friendship, perhaps even out of the love that they had once shared.  But while she liked to give him the boot and fight with him on a daily basis when it involved Diego’s vigilante work, she was right here with him now and already up in arms. At the end of the day, Eudora Patch was someone to count on and Diego had only so very few people in his life that he could truly count on.

»Yeah … That's when I was shot. I tried to help him but the guy who grabbed him was quicker. I managed to injure him with a knife though. The other one too. I still got the knives. Didn't clean them.« It was sheer luck, of course, that both attackers had immediately ripped his knives out of their bodies and left them behind.

»I promise that I’ll give them back as soon as we have run the samples through the database.« Patch smiled softly and Diego shrugged once more. He didn't like to admit that he was rather attached to his weapons. People tended to say that it wasn't normal. To him, however, his knives felt like an extension of his body. Often enough he wouldn't even notice how he would be playing with them when he was lost in thought. »I doubt that we will find something, though.«

»Please, just … Just do me this favor, okay? I wouldn't ask you if I could go out there myself.«

It was a comforting little gesture as Eudora reached over and grabbed his left wrist briefly to give him just a small little squeeze. The touch didn't even linger for more than one, maybe two seconds but to the old touch-starved Diego from his days at the police academy, this would have meant everything.

»Don't worry.« She smiled then as she got back to her feet. »I will do everything I can to find Klaus for you. I know how much he means to you.« She let out a small sigh and then a chuckle. »You know, back in the day, I thought that your stubbornness and unwillingness to conform to rules was what put an end to our relationship. But I guess now … after everything that happened … that was never really the problem. I think the problem always was that your heart was never mine, to begin with.«

»Eudora-«

»It's okay.« She assured softly and entirely without judgment as she looked down on him. She was indeed a beautiful woman and perhaps exactly what he had needed back then. She was proud and strong, kind and caring and always saw the good in people. Maybe he had been looking for someone like her because at least in this regard she was so much like Klaus. »I’m a big girl and I don't regret … us. And now, rest and let me handle this.«

※※※※※※※

The room was crowded. At first, there had only been this tiny Russian lady standing near the window muttering to herself. It had been Ben’s idea to actually talk to her and find out who she was or what she wanted from him. Zoya Popova was a poor tormented soul who was pissed off by the way she had been killed by Cha-Cha and Hazel. They had thrown her off a staircase and left her to die a gruesome and very slow death, her bones shattered at the bottom of the staircase and that just because otherwise she would have done something that would have changed the course of history on that day. Something random. Something out of her control. So, she never got to meet her first grandchild and never helped her daughter through her divorce a year later.

At least his two tormentors had reacted to her name as Klaus had muttered it weakly. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious after he had been freed from the trunk. He remembered vaguely landing with his face in the ugly and possibly disease riddled carpet and then passing out again. His father's words were still echoing in his head even though he wasn't sure whether or not all of this had really happened at all. He had probably just imagined it. The afterlife, his father, _God_.

After that, more and more and more ghosts had started invading his personal space. And the more Klaus was talking about the things the ghosts told him, the uneasier the two other living people in the room had become. At first, it had filled him with a sick sense of pleasure to see Hazel and Cha-Cha so unnerved by what he would say to them.

Their names, he had learned from the ghosts surrounding him as they had lamented about their deaths to him. It was the very first time in his life that Klaus actually talked to the dead around him. Until this very moment, he had just ignored them and tried to act as if they weren't really there - as if this would change anything about the way they would try to torture him with their screeching.

He had learned as a child that it didn't matter at all if he would ignore them or not. They flocked to him as if they would know he could see and hear them and they would pester him nonetheless and drive him to the brink of insanity. They latched themselves onto him like parasites, eager to tell their story, pleading for help and sometimes envious of the fact that he was still living and breathing and young.

Until now, Klaus had never stopped to consider talking to them and maybe even helping them this way. In all those crappy little TV shows they always said that ghosts just want you to finish up their unfinished business and then move on into the afterlife but Klaus knew that this was, for the most part, bullshit. Most ghosts were cruel and jealous and wanted to hurt him. The ghosts in this motel room, however, those who were haunting Cha-Cha and Hazel, they only wanted him to listen and torment them with their stories. They wanted to use him as a vessel and some even seemed concerned for him as he sat on this wooden chair in the middle of the room. He was unrestrained but that was of little consequence now as he was hardly able to even move a single finger.

»Your brother was snooping around at MeriTech Prosthetics the other day, can you tell us anything about that?« Cha-Cha, the woman, asked. He was honestly more afraid of her than of her partner. Well, then again he knew from some of the ghosts that Hazel was a big softie and sometimes even willing let people go.

»I don't know anything.« He sobbed once more. The last punch Cha-Cha had directed at his head was still causing his ears to ring.

He was coated in blood from head to toe by now. And still, none of his siblings had come to his rescue. Well, apparently Five had better things to do anyway. He wished he would see Diego like he was seeing Ben. Having Diego here would help him get through this. Ben was a great help too but … it wasn't the same. Even now was Ben was crouching next to his chair, looking at him with a worried expression, keeping extra close to Klaus as if this way he might shield him from the angrier ghosts in the room. »I don't know anything, please…«

»Anyway, we left him a message. He should sooner or later find us here and when he comes, we’ll be prepared for him.«

»The same way you were prepared for that poor Chinese woman that you took to the temple and slashed her throat before watching her bleed out?« He breathed out a laugh that even to himself sounded crazy and frantic. Maybe he was finally getting crazy. Maybe he had always been crazy. Maybe he was still in the asylum and in a few seconds or so, Nurse Parker would stomp into the room and drag him out and across the hallway to have him endure another horrible treatment that Dr. Ashcroft had designed just for him.

»Or the same way you were prepared for Jan Müller?« He laughed again and he could see the worried expression on the face of a young cheerleader across from him as Hazel and Cha-Cha exchanged confused looks with each other. The cheerleader was still covered in blood like on the day she died. She looked as if she had been mauled by a rabid dog. Yet, she seemed worried about him and she wasn't the only one. There was another woman, dressed as if she came from the 1920s in a beautiful flowing green dress and with a noose around her neck. Apparently, she had been a young British socialite and just about to head off to a party where she would have met some influential man who would have become her husband if they would have met.

All those poor souls had been killed just to correct some timeline they hadn't even fucked up in the first place. That was, at least, what Klaus had been able to put together for now. »Forward … backward … but you let his wife go … such a good man, Hazel … so kind.«

Hazel’s next punch sent him flying off the chair. He was too weak to hold his body upright any longer. He could feel every broken bone in his body as he lay there.

»You can do it, Klaus.« Ben urged again and put a hand on his shoulder. It was cold and the freezing sensation didn't just come from Ben’s hand on his naked flesh. He could feel the cold seeping into his body and spreading all across until he wasn't able to feel anything else anymore. He would die right here on this carpet. At least, he thought, he would be able to see Dave and Diego again when he would be dead.

Diego … What would he think of him right now? He would probably urge him to keep going and soldier through this like Ben was. He would demand Klaus to keep living without him, to be strong and stubborn and to show these assholes not to fuck with the Hargreeves'.

»Diego…« He whispered into the scratchy fibers of the dirty carpet as he lay there with his cheek pressed into it as he heard Cha-Cha and Hazel retreat to the bathroom for a moment. If Diego would want him to soldier on and be strong and to not give up right now, he should just show his ass to him! Why wasn't his brother showing himself to Klaus? Ben had been able to right away before his body had grown cold even! What was taking Diego so long?

As the world was drifting in and out of focus for him, he was back at the mansion again with his father and his siblings yelling at him to find Five and conjure him up for them even though he had never been able to do that in the first place. His powers were useless, despite what his father had told him about his potential. He had no potential. He was just Klaus. Useless Number Four who could talk to the dead. But they had screamed at him to get Five. And that was why Reginald had thrown him again and again and again into this mausoleum, why he had tortured him into submission and yet Klaus had never been able to deliver because Five never died.

Maybe Diego was alive too. Why would he not show himself to Klaus if he were dead? Surely, Diego would be at his side now. Surely, Diego would sit beside Ben and pester him to keep his eyes open, to keep breathing and wait until help would arrive. But Diego wasn't here and he felt so cold.

»They smothered me in my sleep with a pillow.« A gorgeous young woman sobbed as she was pressing her pillow against her chest, forced to carry the instrument of her demise around with her for all eternity.

»They’ve beaten me to death with a baseball bat!« A man yelled from the back of the room. Klaus couldn't see him. It was all too unsteady and weirdly out of focus. It was like staring at an overexposed photography until the eyes would start to hurt from the sensation.

»She put my hands into a meat grinder!«

»Please, stop.« He sobbed into the carpet as the pain and the ache in his head became too much to deal with in addition to the ramblings of the ghosts. »Please, please shut up. Please … Just for a moment. I can't help you, I can't-«

»Klaus.« There was a new voice, even though it was hard to make out over the ramblings of the ghosts around him. »Klaus!« And there was the cold feeling of someone touching his shoulder again and as he looked to his side, he found Ben, pointing at the door to the motel room. Klaus was barely strong enough to move his head to follow Ben’s outstretched arm but when he did, his heart skipped a beat painfully in his chest, making him gasp at the sensation and bite out yet another broken sob.

At the door, he found Dave standing there in a tan army uniform, a smile plastered onto his face. The same bright smile Klaus had fallen in love with all those years ago. Suddenly, he was twenty again and sneaking off with Dave into an alcove where no one would find them. Almost he could feel the touch of Dave’s lips on his own again as he stared at him in awe, his eyes watering almost painfully and his breathing coming ragged from his throat.

»Dave…« He muttered silently. Was Dave here to get him? Was he here to make it easier for Klaus to let go of his mortal body and accept defeat? Oh, he would gladly follow him. He had not had the will to live for the past twelve years so why start now? There was nothing and no one left for him anyway. Sure, his other siblings might be grieving him for a little while but they would move on from this. They had done it once they would do it again. They would all go their separate ways again and forget about him as they had for the past twelve years.

Already he extended a hand to Dave even though every little bit of movement was agony. He was sure that, by now, he had at least two broken ribs and some cracked ones as well. His right ankle was swollen and an ugly purple and black mess since Cha-Cha had taken an umbrella to it. Oh, the irony. It was almost funny. Two fingers of his right hand were broken and he couldn't even remember anymore how that happened. It was by now all just a blur. Maybe it wasn't important. At least he still had all his body parts. It would be a shame to go to the afterlife with his body no longer whole. What would Diego say?

»If your head wouldn't be screwed on you would lose it.« Klaus muttered into the carpet. But Dave’s smile only widened as he stepped closer. He was careful at first, almost a little shy as he walked closer to Klaus.

He was still so beautiful the way he looked at him now. No marks around his neck, no noose. He was perfect. He watched how Dave crouched down at his side, close to Ben and he noticed how Dave avoided touching him as if he would be afraid his touch would do something to Klaus that he wouldn't be able to take back. »Are you staying with me?« Klaus mumbled softly as he rolled back onto his side into a more comfortable position. The ghosts around him were silent for now, all staring down on him with an almost pitying expression. Even they could see that Klaus was dying., Maybe they felt sorry for him.

»Yes.« Dave smiled. »Of course, I am staying with you, Silly.«

»Until the very end?«

»It's not your time yet.« Dave reassured him gently. »But I am going to stay with you until it's over.«

※※※※※※※

Waiting for any news was torture. Pure, exhausting torture. His siblings were of no help either as Diego lounged on the sofa in the living room and tried to focus on a book he wouldn't be reading anyway. He just listened to the grandfather clock in the hall ticking his time away. He couldn't stand it anymore.

Diego felt nauseous as he rose to his feet slowly. His hands and feet felt cold and as he stood he swayed a little on the spot. Only then was he realizing that he had been dizzy for quite some time now but refusing to acknowledge it. It reminded him of a day when he was fourteen and still so eager to please dad, that he had spent the entire day training and working out, even forgoing his meals until he had suddenly passed out on the gym floor. He had been so busy that he had not realized what he was doing to his body.

Still, Diego set one foot in front of the other and clutched the wound in his chest above his bandages. He made it out of the living room and towards the kitchen where he suspected to find his mother preparing dinner. Every step felt like exercise to him. He could hardly lift his feet and his vision was blurry with dark spots appearing at the edges more and more with every step he took towards the comfort of their warm kitchen.

As he took his hand from the bandages to grab a hold of the wall beside him, it came away bloody but he needed a long moment to realize what was going on.

»Diego!« Allison’s voice made him whip his head around too quickly and that was it. He didn't feel the sudden impact as the ground came rushing towards him and he didn't feel his body going into shock. Allison's face hovered above his own for a second and then blissful darkness.

※※※※※※※

Hazel and Cha-Cha seemed to take forever in the bathroom as they were undoubtedly talking about what Klaus had just said. He could hear them argue through the closed door of the bathroom but the calming presence of Ben and Dave by his side was enough for Klaus to keep forcing wheezing little breaths into his lungs. They were watching over him, keeping him awake through it all just like the other ghosts around him which had started to form a protective circle around the medium in their midst as if this way they might shield him from Hazel and Cha-Cha’s soon to come wrath.

He knew that he was in bad shape and he knew that he might not wake up if he would fall unconscious. Despite death seeming so alluring to him now, he fought to stay afloat. »Remember that you promised me I would meet your brother one day?« Dave smiled down at him, comforting and exchanged a small glance with Ben as Klaus was rasping away on the floor, clinging desperately to whatever little energy was left in his body. »I still need you to show me this Diego guy for real. I need to see what the buzz is all about.«

It was meant as a joke and Klaus had enough decency inside of him to actually chuckle a little at this before another sob could wreck him. »Diego is dead…« He whispered quietly into the carpet. »He’s dead … and I’m so sorry, Dave…«

»You don't need to be sorry.« The soldier smiled and trailed a hand through his hair although his hand was pathetically slipping through Klaus’ skull instead. »You are still alive and breathing and I want you to be happy.«

»But Diego is dead…« And he wasn't here. Diego was dead and he was not here with him. He was probably at peace now and glad to be as far away from Klaus as humanly possible. He had done his part and had died for Klaus and now he was playing darts with Kurt Cobain or something like this. He was dead and Klaus was all alone.

After Dave, his world had been such a bleak and awful place and then Diego came back to him and set his world aflame at once like he had when they were much younger than they were now. How was he ever going to recover from that? The shaking of his limbs was unbearable now. He was hot and cold all over and felt like puking his entire soul out. He wondered if this was what dying felt like.

Suddenly, there was a shift in the atmosphere, a tingle running down his spine as his stomach turned over. It was the same feeling that he had had when he had seen Ben’s ghost for the first time standing in the archway of the living room covered in blood. And there, as the ghosts were parting before him like the red sea, he could see him standing there right across the room from him.

His tan skin was pale from blood loss, his hand clutching still the gunshot wound in his chest with a puzzled expression, his dark eyes resting on Klaus in a moment of utter horror as realization seemed to grip Diego at once like it had gripped Ben all those years ago when he had realized that only Klaus had been able to see him standing in that archway.

It wasn’t Diego, however, who let out that high pitched wail. It wasn’t Diego who started screeching and screaming at the top of his lungs. And it wasn’t Diego calling out his name like a desperate little mantra.

He didn't know how long the moment lasted. It seemed like an eternity that he was forced to stare at his dead brother, at the man he loved so desperately and then he was gone again like Ben had been gone again at once the first time he had shown himself to Klaus. Klaus’ throat was raw as the bathroom door burst open and Cha-Cha and Hazel shot out with their guns drawn ready to shoot at some intruder. Yet, they only found Klaus lying on the ground, raw, broken sobs calling for Diego, escaping his torn throat. To them, the other ghosts in the room were invisible.

With a sigh, they holstered their guns again and as Cha-Cha stepped closer, she walked right through the protective circle of the dead surrounding Klaus after they had reclaimed their positions around him. He could almost feel Ben and Dave’s hands on his back. They couldn't do anything. They were just as helpless as Klaus was. Klaus, however, felt numb as he lay there. He felt almost as if his soul had left his body. He couldn't feel anything anymore. Not the tremors of withdrawal shooting through him, not the ache in his throat for screaming so loudly, not the pain of his injuries. There was nothing.

»You need to pull through this.« Ben urged from behind him. »You can do it. For Diego!«

»Diego…« Klaus muttered again quietly as Cha-Cha nudged her boot against his left temple and made his head loll back just slightly. He didn't possess any strength now. He was but a broken little doll on the floor.

»We should get rid of him.« Cha-cha sighed and walked back over to her partner only to hand him that baseball bat again that had been leaning against the wall near her bed. Hazel took it with an annoyed groan.

»And why do _I_ have to do that? You know that my wrist hurt from carrying around that suitcase all the time!«

»Well, you are the one with that stupid brace!«

»My therapy is not covered by the insurance, you know that!«

»Oh my God, just do it!« Cha-Cha huffed like a fire breathing dragon. »Look at that poor bastard! He won’t last more than like two blows anyway and then we can throw him in some dumpster or something. We set the trap, now Number Five only needs to get here. We don’t need that asshole for it and we don't certainly need him to alert any attention with his screaming! Just put him out of his misery already.«

Cha-Cha walked a few feet away as Hazel seemed to give up his resistance and came closer. To this man this was just business. There was no emotion in his eyes as he went to do what he needed to do. It was nothing personal, he was just carrying out orders, just doing his job. That was the impression Hazel gave him. He might as well be sitting at a desk punching holes into documents right now.

Although he would be facing his death at the end of an already bloody baseball bat, Klaus didn't feel afraid. He had never been afraid of dying. He had been afraid of being surrounded by ghosts for all eternity. Now, however, he could die in peace. Diego would be waiting on the other side. Ben and Dave would be waiting on the other side and, when Five would get here, he would soon join Klaus too. Wasn't that a nice little thought? They would all have such a great time together in the afterlife. It would be one big party.

Although, Diego would shout at him why he hadn't fought any harder. He would understand it, ultimately. Sooner or later, he would get it and he would forgive him and he would take him in his arms and make everything better. Diego always made everything better.

As the first blow came, he was ready for it. The bat hit him right in the head but not with enough force to actually crack open his head and relief him of his suffering just yet. He didn't even scream. He didn't even feel the pain. Hazel swung his bat harder the next time and made sure to hit him straight in the stomach. He could feel the impact, could feel the damage the bat did to his body and yet there was no pain. He took every hit Hazel had to offer, praying that it would be over soon, that God on her fancy little bike would have mercy on him and allow him to succumb to his injuries at last. He knew that she didn't like him but perhaps they could strike a deal. He could take care of her bike for her perhaps.

As Hazel’s fifth’s hit caught him in the face and cracked his nose, he let out another broken plea for Diego without even realizing it. Not to save him but to catch him when he would fall and leave his body once and for all.

Around him, the ghosts were getting restless. They were screaming and crying and wailing. For him, as he finally realized. They were screaming for him. Not to help _them_ but because they wanted to help _him_.

»Klaus!« Ben’s voice sounded weak all of the sudden as if he was trying to talk through a radio with him but Klaus was losing the signal. His voice was warped and distorted. And he heard Dave calling out for him the same way just as Hazel let out a snort.

»That punk is tougher than he looks like!« He called to his partner as he wiped sweat from his brow. »Not like the other guy. What was his name? Diego? Fell like a fly - that bastard with his stupid knives.« Hazel laughed. »Hit me right in the side! Oh well, say hello to him when you see him again!«

»And don't worry« The woman behind him laughed. »We will make sure to send the rest of your crazy siblings right after you!«

At first, he wasn't sure what was happening. He could only watch with darkness creeping in on him, how Hazel lifted his bat to get momentum for the last deadly blow to Klaus’ head. He felt pain and anger and seizing rage well up inside of him all at once. He didn't realize how his hands had started to emit some otherworldly odd blue glow. He could only stare in horror how Hazel’s bat was suddenly stopped by a ghostly blue hand and as he looked, Dave was right there, holding the bat firmly with one hand and ripping it from the grasp of the assassin.

»Holy shit!« Hazel gasps. »What the fuck is that?«

It took Klaus a second to realize that the room was bathed in the blue light of the spirits that were surrounding him. And just as Klaus realized what was happening, so did the spirits. They screeched louder than ever before. A sound of triumph and not one of rage or pain or despair. He had no control over them as they jumped at their murderers. He had no control as the ghosts started attacking Hazel and Cha-Cha and started ripping them to bloody shreds. It was like an explosion of pure energy in the tiny motel room and it all happened too fast for anyone to understand what was going on.

And then, as quickly as it had happened, it was over. Cha-cha and Hazel lay dead on the ground in puddles of their own blood. Their deaths had been gruesome, and painful and the shock was still etched into their faces as they lay there, their throats torn open, ghostly hands tearing into their bodies and ripping out whatever they could grab. It was a mess. There was blood all over the walls and the carpet. As the blue light started to fade away the ghosts lingered for just a moment longer. It was the Russian lady, Zoya, who looked at Klaus once more with a fond smile on her face and said something he couldn't understand before she, alongside everyone else, vanished.  

The room was quiet and peaceful except for his own shallow breathing that only came in ragged gasps now. He wanted to close his eyes and allow the darkness to take him away now. He felt at peace as he laid there on the blood soiled carpet. The spirits were at peace too. For once in his life, he had actually helped the ghosts around him and it felt good. With his last breath, he had been able to be useful. He had protected his family and more people all around the world from these lunatics.

»Klaus!« Ben was still there but he could no longer see Dave. He was at peace, he supposed. »Klaus! Get up! Klaus, come on, you need to get help!«

The door of the motel room burst open without his doing as it seemed. Ben? Had he opened the door? He couldn't tell. He felt like someone was dragging him to his feet but was unable to open his eyes as he coughed up blood from the pit of his stomach as it seemed. Someone was leading him through the door even though every step on his broken ankle was pure and utter agony.

By the time he had made it out of the motel room, he was clawing at the walls for support. He felt almost possessed by something from another dimension as he moved onwards, soldiered through this moment of agony. When had he opened his eyes again? He couldn't recall. But the world around him was much too bright. It was a grey overcast day and yet the sun behind the clouds had power. He could see red and blue lights in the distance in the parking lot and, as he reached the stairs to the floor he was on, his legs finally gave in.

He heard the wet squelch of his body hitting the floor before he felt it. And he heard the voice of a woman calling frantically for an ambulance. _Don’t bother_ , he thought. He was at peace.

 

**-End of Chapter 17-**


	18. Chapter 18

There was the steady _beep-beep-beep_ of someone’s heart invading his ears. There was a part of his brain that felt personally affronted by the annoying sound that seemed to echo all around him, reverberating in his skull and making his whole body vibrate with the sound. Around him, however, darkness reigned supreme. It took him a moment to realize that his eyes were shut firmly and another one to force them open. The beeping sound got faster as he opened his eyes and he couldn't quite tell why that was.  

The world around him was blurry. It was strange and warped and distorted and he didn't quite understand it. He saw snow as he slowly blinked against the sunlight shining down on him all too harshly. He had to blink a few times to make sense of the environment and even as objects started to take shape around him, it didn't register in his brain what exactly he was seeing. He only saw white. White walls, a white ceiling, white linoleum floor. His heart was racing in his chest and the beeping around him got even louder and faster.

He was back in his little white room again and there was no escape. He had never escaped in the first place, was that it? Diego … the escape from the sanatorium … Cha-Cha and Hazel … it hadn't happened. He had never left this room, tied to a bed he couldn't leave even if he wouldn't be tied down.

»Klaus.«

Ben! Oh thank God, Ben was still with him and he could see him and he could hear him and Ben was there right next to him with that same worried expression he always wore on his face. At least Ben was with him in this hell hole. Even when he was back in limbo now, at least he had Ben and this time around he knew that Ben was with him. He could go through the torture and the drugs and the horrors of the asylum with Ben at his side.

»Calm down, Klaus.« Ben’s voice was soft as he approached Klaus and sat down on the edge of the bed. The mattress didn't tilt under his weight and Ben was still dead. »Everything is alright. You are okay now.«

How could he even say that when he was so clearly not okay? How could he say that when Klaus was back in his little white room? He couldn't even breathe! There was something on his face, pressing against his nose and his jaw and it hurt.

»Breathe, Klaus!« Ben urged but his voice remained calm and he would have reached out to him if he would have been able to touch him. But Ben was still dead. »Breathe, you are in the hospital. You need to calm down and take a deep breath. You are safe now. Cha-Cha and Hazel are dead.«

The hospital? No. Surely, Ben was mistaken.

His head was filled with cotton wool. It filled the space were his brain once sat and was stuck in his ears. He wanted to turn his head to look around and see if Ben was right but he couldn't move. Already he felt darkness engrossing upon him once more. He didn't want to fall asleep. He was afraid of falling back asleep. What if Ben wouldn't be here anymore when he would wake up? What if he would wake up in the asylum again? What if he would wake up in the motel room?

He didn't even know what was real anymore and what was not. Yet, he couldn't resist the allure of the sweet embrace of sleep as Hypno came to him and took him in his arms like a long lost lover.

As he woke up next, he wasn’t alone anymore. That was probably not fair anyway. Ben was with him, after all. He was never truly alone with Ben by his side. He blinked slowly against the buzz in his head. He felt as if he was floating on clouds. Thick white clouds of smoke carrying him through the air and someplace else. Perhaps some place where he wouldn't be torn apart limb from limb all the fucking time. Some place where he was not getting tortured, where he could just be Klaus. The thought, though appealing to others, perhaps, was terrifying to Klaus Hargreeves. Who was he at the end of the day anyway?

He was one of 43 children all born on the very same day at the exact same moment to mother's who hadn't been pregnant before that moment came. He was one of seven children adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the eccentric billionaire who had tried to make superheroes out of those seven children. He was a man haunted by the dead and by death itself. He was an addict. He was a terrified child. He was a lunatic. He was crazy. He was ill. He was useless. And, first and foremost, he was alone. At the end of the day, despite Ben being at his side, he was alone. He had lost Dave and he had lost Diego and he would spend the rest of his days talking to someone only he could see to feel less alone, less vulnerable.

There was a part in him that desperately wanted to be numb to the world again. There was a part in him that wanted Nurse Parker to stomp into the room and stick a needle into his arm again. Not feeling anything was better than feeling all the pain the universe had to offer.

Now, however, he was not alone at all. There was someone sitting beside him. At first, he thought it was Ben but the person sitting beside him was much bigger than Ben. _That_ he could tell right away.

»You scared the shit out of us.« Luther’s voice sounded hoarse from lack of use or maybe even sleep. As Klaus turned his head just the bare minimum to look at his brother, he noticed that the big guy looked like shit warmed up and then spit out by one of the eldritch monsters from the depths of Ben’s portal stomach thingy.

His face looked ashen, his lips dry. He had dark circles under his eyes as if the last time he had slept was weeks ago and a fine coat of dark blonde stubbles was lining his jaw and around his mouth. His clothes were rumpled and if he wouldn't know any better he would say that there was blood on them.

Klaus couldn't speak. There was something on his face and he was too tired and confused to realize what it was, let alone get rid of it.

»We thought we’d lost you. Again.« There was something in Luther's deep voice that Klaus couldn't quite put his finger on. He was sure that he had never heard whatever it was before. This version of his brother was alien to him and he didn't know yet if he liked it or not. Was this perhaps Luther’s way of expressing concern for useless Number four? Luther had never been very interested in Klaus. His life and revolved around Allison and whatever Dad had wanted him to do.

When asked to jump, Luther had only ever asked ‘how high’. The rest of his siblings had always been of little concern for their great leader. Except for Diego, perhaps, but only because Diego had been his greatest adversary and had always made it brutally clear that Luther would feel his disdain or how little he thought about whatever decision Luther had made at that time.

Diego … He remembered vaguely what had happened in the motel even though it seemed like a nightmare. He had hoped that it had just been a nightmare but now he was here and Luther was here and his brother looked at him as if Klaus had almost died on him and he realized that it had not been a dream at all. He had killed those two assassins. No … No, not he. The ghosts had.

He remembered Dave being by his side and trying to keep him awake so that he wouldn't succumb to his injuries and Ben just being there, keeping watch over him as he had always done. He remembered seeing Diego. His poor beloved Diego with a hole in his chest and that horrified look on his face.

He didn't quite feel the heat on his cheeks and only realized that he was crying as Luther reached out to him with his giant paws to wipe a few stray tears away. The whole situation seemed oh so very awkward as Luther then grasped Klaus left hand with both of his and held it firmly as if that would make anything better at all. His hands were warm, at least. His grip was firm and strong and helped to ground him at the moment, helped to make Klaus realize that he was here and alive and breathing and that his heart was still beating steadily. How could it beat after it had been ripped out of his chest and crushed?

Dave had died and he had been powerless to do something about it. He had died and Klaus hadn't been there for him to stop him from killing himself. Ben had died and he had been powerless to do something about it. He had died because Klaus hadn't been allowed to accompany him and Luther on that mission because he hadn't been sober enough. Diego had died and he had been powerless to do something about it. He had died because he had wanted to save Klaus. Everything he loved seemed to wither away in front of him. Almost he was scared that he would be the ruin for the rest of his siblings as well.

He was like a virus. Wherever he went death was following on his tail. Oh, how fitting that was. He was the grim reaper. Perhaps that was why all those ghosts were always following him around. He was the grim reaper and in another life, he had killed all of them.

He didn't realize when he had fallen asleep again with Luther at his side or how much time had passed since then but when he came to it the next time, he was staring right at the face of some old dude in a white lab coat who was leaning over him, a warm hand on his shoulder that should be reassuring and comforting but only served to terrify him.

How many times had he opened his eyes to stare directly into the face of someone in a lab coat staring down on him like this? It wasn't Dr. Jones and it was not Dr. Ashcroft either. He tried to force his mind to realize that but, in the end, terror prevailed over logic. He could see the man’s mouth move and assumed that he was talking to Klaus but all he could hear was the sharp ringing in his ears as he could see the man’s face getting blurry above him already.

»Give him some room!« A deep voice sounded muffled in the distance through the ringing in his ears. Slowly the man stepped back from the bed and out of Klaus’ immediate field of vision. The ringing in his ears held on for a moment longer and only as it slowly faded away Klaus started to get aware of the sound of heavy breathing in the room. It took him a long time to realize that he was the one who was breathing so heavily.

Luther was there again. He could see him standing at the side of his bed, staring down on him with a worried expression etched into his face. He was talking to Klaus but for the longest time, Klaus only heard the thumping of his own heart in his ears as he started to calm down again. He felt as if he was drenched in sweat from this sudden burst of complete and utter terror gripping his heart in an iron fist.

He realized slowly that the weight was gone from his face and he had no clue for how long it was already gone. The longer he kept his eyes open, the more sensations started to creep back in on him. he could feel the pain in his leg slowly making itself known to him. There was a whole lot more, of course, and even in his confused state, Klaus was highly aware that, as soon as whatever painkillers he was on would wear off, he would be in a world of agony.

»How are you feeling, Mr. Hargreeves?« The doctor chimed up as he took position beside his bed, a clipboard in his hands. Klaus was surprised to see that there were no nurses and he could only assume that Luther had made sure that Klaus would be disturbed as little as possible.

Klaus licked his lips before he even tried to answer. His throat felt as if it was lined with sandpaper and a part of him wanted to yell at Luther as his brother took his hand once more. Apparently, Luther was really touchy-feely these days. Well … They had lost Diego, after all. Even Luther couldn't ignore that. They had once been seven and now they were five. They had once been five brothers and now they were three.

»Mr. Hargreeves was my father…« Klaus muttered quietly. Every word hurt and his voice sounded scratchy and raw even to his own ears, yet his response prompted a soft chuckle from Luther - much to his surprise. Luther had never shown any sign of possessing any kind of humor in the past. He remembered not one instance when he had made Luther Hargreeves laugh in some fashion. Maybe he was just so relieved to hear some semblance of sass coming out of Klaus. Even that though seemed odd.

»Well, I take that as a sign that you feel better.« The doctor hummed with a soft smile. Wouldn't he be wearing a white lab coat, wouldn't they be in a hospital, he would seem friendly enough, he guessed. Klaus, however, could barely look at him without panic flaring up inside of him.

»He’s not Ashcroft and he is not Jones.« Ben’s voice sounded from his other side and Klaus didn't quite dare to look at him. What if the doctor would notice and give him something to stop him from seeing Ben? What if he would think that Klaus was hallucinating? »He’s here to help.«

He knew that Ben would never lie to him. Not Ben. Not sweet, lovely, kind, gentle Ben. Yet, believing Ben had never been harder. There had been a time in his life when he had been convinced that the ghosts he would see were only a figment of his imagination. And what if Dr. Jones had been right? What if Ben wasn't really there and just another way his overactive imagination and his insanity were expressing itself?

However, while Ben could only hover next to his bed and keep a watchful eye on him, Luther could at least put a reassuring hand on his hand. Luther could at least spread warmth through Klaus’ cold skin. Luther and he had never been particularly close as children but now he was here and he tried to be there for him. Surely, Luther would protect him from anyone who would want to do him harm, right? Despite everything that had divided them, at least when it was important Luther would still protect Klaus.

»If you would allow it, I would like to check on your injuries, Mr.-«

»Klaus.« Luther interrupted and would have probably blushed at his own rude behavior would it not have been for his exhaustion.

»Klaus.« The doctor nodded with a small smile crossing his old face. Klaus, however, was nonetheless uncertain and nodded only after another glance at Luther. They didn't need to exchange words. In a weird way, all seven siblings had always been connected on some level. Luther knew that Klaus wanted him to stay close even if Klaus would never admit it. And, if asked later, he would deny that he felt safer with Luther by his side as the Doctor, whose name tag read O'Connor, started to check on his injuries.

Until that moment, Klaus had not even quite realized in what bad a shape he truly was. He had a first-row seat to the ocean of colorfully blooming bruises all over his body and remembered vividly how they’ve gotten there too. He remembered every blow he had received, every kick and punch and cut. His torso had been wrapped firmly in bandages and the reason for it was revealed soon after.

»When you arrived here, you had internal bleeding. We had to operate.« Dr. O’Connor explained in a calm voice as he carefully dragged his gloved fingers over the operation scar on his stomach. »You had a hole in your stomach lining. Almost would have bled out had you not been found so quickly. A few broken bones too. Three broken ribs - your ankle … Well, I think you know that already.« He looked grim as he continued his examination and Luther seemed more and more uneasy by the second as he stood guard beside Klaus and just listened to the doctor rambling on about Klaus’ numerous injuries. »You have been lucky, Klaus. A few minutes later and we wouldn't have been able to save you.«

His nose was broken, his ankle shattered, his shoulder fractured, a few of his fingers of his right hand broken and the damage to his head so severe that they had almost needed to take out pieces of his skull because of the swelling of his brain. And yet, here he was. Somehow still alive and kicking and he wished he wasn't. What purpose was there for him to still be here anyway? He had never been a particularly strong-willed person anyway. And now without Diego… Fuck, wasn't that just perfectly pathetic?

»What happened?« Klaus mumbled after the doctor was gone and he was once again alone with Luther who dragged the chair he had previously occupied back to the side of Klaus’ bed to sit down heavily. His brother looked as if he had aged rapidly at least ten years in the last few minutes.

»Well … You were kidnapped.«

»Duh.« Klaus rolled his eyes. »I know that. I was there, you know? Hazel and Cha-Cha … They wanted information about Five and didn't believe me when I told them that I didn't know anything. So they tortured me.«

»Fuck, Klaus I’m-«

»But what happened after that?« He didn't want to ask about Diego straight away. He didn't want to ask how he died because he knew how he died. He didn't want to ask if they had tried to save him or if they had wasted too much time fighting before they had found him bleeding out on the floor.

»What's the last you remember?«

Seeing Diego’s ghost, he wanted to say. He couldn't think about it. If he would think about it, he would start wailing right here on the spot. »I don't know.« He lied instead. »I guess they were fed up with me … Wanted to get rid of me once and for all.«

»The police said they found two bodies in that motel room. Do you remember what happened to them? Who killed them?«

Luther would think he had lost his marbles if he would tell him that the ghosts had done it. He knew it. Luther had never been a big believer in his stories, to begin with. »I don't know.« He offered instead of telling the truth and was rewarded with a small sigh in return.

»Well … You were lucky.« He almost snorted at that. Lucky? »Diego’s detective friend found you at the motel. She arrived there to investigate those two and got a lead to the motel somehow. Something about a message on a dusty windshield or something. I have to admit, I didn't listen to her very well. I was … I was a little stressed out. Anyway, she found you there and called an ambulance right away. Fuck, Klaus … We almost lost you. For real this time. When we got the call you were already on your way to the OR. They took hours and hours to fix you up again.«

»How long did I sleep?«

Luther shrugged a little. »Almost two days. They put you under just to be safe. You woke up a few times but I don't believe you recall that.«

»Not vividly, no.« Luther actually smiled a bit as those words. It was a sad little thing, that smile, and it didn't fit his big strong brother at all. »So I’m guessing the police will be questioning me too?«

»Yeah, I guess they will. But don't worry, we are keeping them at bay for now. You just woke up, after all, and you need time to heal first.« Luther was careful as he grabbed Klaus’ hand once more and he could already sense that for once in their lives, Luther actually wanted to hug him. He couldn't even remember if Luther and he had ever hugged. They probably had, hadn't they? As kids, right? A part of him yearned to be hugged by Luther now. He was probably good at giving hugs now that he was so huge. »After the surgery, it wasn't quite clear if you would make it. We took shifts. We wanted to make sure one of us was with you at all times because we didn't want you to wake up alone.«

»Where are the others?« Klaus asked clearing his throat. Odd how hearing these words from Luther made him all teary-eyed and whumpy right away. It should be normal for siblings to stay at each other’s bedside when they were injured like this. Maybe it was the fact that it was not normal for them that made him so emotional.

»Five and Allison are at home right now, resting. None of us slept very well since the kidnapping.«

Guilt was suddenly gripping his heart. In all that time at the motel, he had never once stopped to wonder if his siblings were alright. He had decided that they were not coming because they just hadn't found him yet or that they perhaps didn't care about him after losing Diego. Not once had he considered that his siblings might have gotten hurt too.

»And Vanya?«

»Vanya’s keeping Diego company.«

His heart was skipping a beat as he just stared at Luther, unsure of what the hell his brother had just told him. Vanya was keeping Diego company? How? His head was pounding as he tried to think about what Luther could possibly mean by those words. He didn't come to a satisfying conclusion only found more pain in the depths of his head. Fuck.

»I don't understand.« Klaus muttered tiredly. »I don't- Diego is dead … I saw him get shot … He’s-« _I saw his ghost_ , he wanted to say. _I saw his ghost and I freaked out and he was dead!_

»What?« Luther replied with confusion written all over his face. Luther had always been so easy to read. He was like a dog, almost. »No, Diego is alive! Just … Just royally pissed off at the moment.«

»Luther … My head is killing me … Would you be so kind and tell me what the fuck is going on?« He should be happy, he should be ecstatic but he couldn't quite believe his luck right now and so he was careful to give into the idea of getting a second chance with Diego. Or was it the third already?

Luther gave an exhausted if not exasperated sigh as he raked his fingers through his short hair. »You are right, Diego was shot when you got kidnapped but Mom could save him. I won’t lie, it was a close call but luckily for us, Diego is one stubborn asshole. You can probably imagine how pissed he was when he had to stay put while we were searching for you. Anyway … He managed to get a serious infection to his wound the other day and needed to get to the hospital. Hell … He almost died. I mean … He did, I guess. Five was with him in the ambulance and he told us that Diego had to be revived on the way to the hospital. It was quite bad but he survived. That was … actually, on the same day, you were found. We were already here at the hospital when you were delivered.«

»But that … That just doesn’t make any sense … I saw … I saw him … I saw his- Where is he now?«

»Down the hall.« Klaus pushed back his blanket and Luther stopped him right away. »Hell no! You are staying right where you are! Have you not listened to Dr. O’Connor? You are in no condition to move at all! Diego is fine, just pissed that he can’t be here. That's why I’m here. He asked me to stay with you as long as I could and make sure that you are alright. Vanya is pretty much keeping him contained now.«

»Luther … if you don't want me to beat you up with my bedpan, you will bring me to Diego. _Now_. I am done with people telling me what I can and can not do.« He could see it on Luther’s face that he wanted to argue with him, perhaps even contemplated tying him to the bed. However, even Luther knew that Klaus would flip his shit if he would try anything funny with him here. After a moment, Luther sighed and dropped his head in defeat.

»Listen … I’m gonna find your doctor and ask if it's okay. If he says it's okay, I’ll get you a wheelchair. But you really have to promise me that you won’t move too much.« Klaus only gave a solemn little nod even though they both knew that Klaus would not stick to his promise.

Just as Luther got up from his chair, however, there was commotion right outside the door to his room. Luther almost immediately took a protective stance in front of Klaus’ bed as if he expected some kind of threat outside to come for his _little_ brother just as the door flew open.

»Diego, wait!« The voice of a woman echoed from the hallway just as another figure burst into the room like a cannonball on extasy. Diego looked weirdly pale. He looked completely disheveled for some odd reason, wearing a hospital gown with a pair of loose sweatpants underneath. He was barefoot and held onto a metal pole with an IV-drip as if it would be a crutch. He looked frailer and sicker than Klaus had ever seen his brother - even sicker than Diego had looked with twelve when he had caught this awful stomach bug and had been bed-ridden for two whole weeks while puking his guts out.

Diego’s eyes were those of a feral animal as he stared at Klaus from the door, his mouth slack, stubbles all around his jaw. He could imagine Diego escaping from his room in a hurry, charging down the hallway before anyone could stop him but now, as he stood in the doorway, he seemed still at once, as if all energy had left him. Klaus barely realized how Vanya appeared behind him. Not that she would matter at the moment. No one mattered besides Diego right now. He would have gotten up and crossed the room himself if it wouldn't have been for Luther and his giant paw resting on his shoulder.

It seemed to take a lifetime until Diego managed to get moving again. Diego stepped closer slowly and obviously had a hard time keeping himself up right now that the adrenalin had worn off a little. Luther didn't even argue with any of them as he just stepped aside so that Diego could take his spot on the chair. Instead, Diego sat down on the edge of Klaus’ bed. The mattress dipped ever so slightly under his weight.

»Um…« Luther muttered and scratched his neck before he retreated to the door. »Vanya … Let's go get coffee, okay?« It seemed like a miracle that _Luther Hargreeves,_ of all people, read the situation right and actually had the decency to leave them alone for a moment. Only as Luther and Vanya left the room, Klaus noticed the trembling of Diego’s bottom lip as his brother looked down on him now, taking in the damage done to Number Four.

Diego’s hands were warm, almost scorching hot, as he cupped his face as if Klaus would be the most precious thing he had ever touched. Diego's calloused hands were as careful with him as if he was touching a china teacup and was horrified to drop it or crack it in any way.

»I thought you were dead.« Klaus mumbled quietly as he looked up in those chocolate brown eyes because it was all too obvious that Diego was hardly able to say anything. There was so much emotion in this face now.

His cool knife-wielding vigilante brother was crumbling into a million tiny pieces right before his very eyes as Diego finally leaned down to press his lips to Klaus’ own. He could feel the horrible tremble going through Diego at this, could taste the salt of his tears on his lips as he pulled away after a moment. Not once did Diego stop touching him. He only started to card his fingers through Klaus’ curls but his hands remained upon him steadily.

»I-I-I’m s-so sorry…« Diego finally stammered silently into the void of the hospital room. »I-I should have p-p-protected you.«

»It's not your fault.« Klaus assured him just as quietly. He felt tired already as a weight was dropping off his shoulders. Diego was alive and he was here with him and they would heal from this. That was all that mattered, right? They could move on from this and despite the impending apocalypse of which Five had told them before, Klaus felt as if they had all the time in the world.

 

**-End of Chapter 18-**


	19. Chapter 19

Diego was restless as he waited on the other side of that damn white door. He felt anxious and nervous and had no idea why. It was stupid to feel this way, of course. Nothing bad was going to happen. His brother would walk out of that room and they would go home.

»Jesus Christ, would you calm down, Diego?«  Five groaned from where he was leaning against the wall behind him, dressed his usual best in his old academy uniform with a scowl on his face that made grown man crumble. »You act as if he’s about to deliver your first born. Not that I would put it past you guys to actually manage such a feat.«

Diego’s glare only managed to make Five grin. Sometimes he wondered if Five had missed them so much in the future that he had even missed their stupid little arguments all the time. Diego remembered a time when he would have looked at Klaus across the table whenever Five had started shit with their father or other siblings in the past. He had always been feisty.

Five seemed almost calm as he stood there and less fidgety than he normally was. Perhaps the realization that their sister Vanya was not so ordinary than they had all thought her to be had had this effect on him while it had succeeded in putting Luther a little more on edge.

The worst about Klaus being in the hospital was that Diego had to adhere to visiting hours and that left him with a lot of free time on his hands and so little to fill it now that he was no longer working at the gym. Needless to say, he was no longer welcome to fight there as well. These days he had to take it slow because of his still-healing injury and so he was bored out of his mind most of the time. That was why Diego had decided to snoop around their father’s office and that was how he had found that precious wooden box in which their father had kept his most important notebook. At first, he had thought little about it as he had shown it to the rest of his siblings one evening.

It had been a fun little bonding exercise for all of them - minus Klaus - to read whatever their father had written about them. Some notes had been highly embarrassing to say the least as their father had even taken notes of their weird childhood habits or favorite toys. Reading all of this, Diego realized that their father had paid much more attention to his children than any of them had ever thought. Hell, the old grouch had even gotten the names of their cuddly toys right - or in Diego’s case his snuggle blanket, good old Sir Blankalot.

In that night, Klaus had been missed especially as they had read the notes about him and remembered all the quirky little things their brother had done as a child - how he would steal Allison’s skirt to prance around or how he would dance on the coffee table in the living room to Britney Spears. They had laughed together over the notes and a few bottles of wine and then they had hit Vanya’s notes and their sister had assured them that there was probably not much to read about her anyway. In that same night, Vanya had thrown all her pills into the garbage disposal under the cheer of her drunken siblings.

They still didn't quite know how to trigger Vanya’s powers but at least they could all work together on this and help their sister to figure it all out. Being home at the academy felt oddly good these days. It was strange but the house was not complete without Klaus around. Hell, when had he turned into such a sentimental wuss?

It was almost a little embarrassing that his thoughts seemed almost entirely to revolve around Klaus nowadays. Then again, Luther and Allison were hardly subtle about their feelings for each other either and Five had this weird mannequin. They were all royally messed up, to begin with as it seemed. For once, Vanya being the _normal_ one of the bunch, felt right and good and comforting. She was as far from being normal as they were, of course, but at least she knew how to be a functioning adult in normal society and thus it was, at last, her who would take the hands of her siblings and lead them.

Two weeks had passed since Klaus had first been admitted and his healing process had been slow and painful for everyone involved in it, especially for Klaus, though. Klaus, just like Diego, was a man of little patience and he hated being in this hospital for obvious reasons. Leaving him here was hard enough knowing that Klaus was afraid of this environment that reminded him so much of the asylum, not being able to help him through his physical therapy was worse.

»Have you told him about Dave yet?« Five broke the silence anew as Diego stopped pacing. He felt like a kid caught with the hand in the cookie jar. Dave was a topic hanging over his and Klaus’ relationship like a Damocles sword. He knew that he owed Klaus the truth about Dave. He had loved this man, after all, and Diego’s jealousy had nothing to do with that.

»Not yet.« Diego sighed.

»Diego-«

»I didn't find the right moment yet, okay?«

»There never will be a right moment.« Five groaned with a roll of his eyes though Diego knew that his brother knew the best of all of them how hard it could be to deliver world-ending, soul-shattering news. »You can't let him live with thinking that Dave killed himself.«

»And the truth is better? I mean suicide it bad enough but at least Klaus could convince himself that it had nothing to do with him and everything with Dave’s sickness. But knowing that Dave was killed because of Klaus? How is that better?« Diego knew, of course, that Klaus would forever blame himself for Dave’s suicide as long as he would not know the truth. He knew it better than anyone else what that felt like. But wouldn’t he crush his brother if he would tell him the truth?

»It's not but it's the truth and he should know the truth. He deserves to know everything and sort out his life with this knowledge.«

»Sometimes not knowing is better.« And yet it had been Five, their own brother, who had once in the future found them all dead between the rubbles of the academy and who had still told them all about it. He could as well have kept this to himself. He didn't, though.

»Sometimes knowing is better.«

※※※※※※※

Being back home was strange, to say the least. So much seemed to have changed in just those two weeks and that after Klaus had barely time to get used to being back home after twelve long years before his kidnapping. He couldn't deny how happy he was to be home, though.

»I’ve seen Dad.« Klaus muttered as he lay on the sofa in the living room, his feet on Diego’s lap and all his siblings around him. They had all gathered around the new TV that Allison had bought for the room and hung where Five’s portrait used to be. There was some stupid action movie running and the heavenly scent of pizza hung in the air around them. It was a lazy night with wine and pizza and nobody paid much attention to the movie anyway. March was on its last legs and had brought them the first warmer nights and days filled with sunshine. At his words, everyone turned to look at him and Diego just brushed his fingers over Klaus’ exposed calf as if to steady him at the moment.

»When I was with Cha-Cha and Hazel … they locked me in this old trunk for … God, I don't know how long. I don't even know what happened, to be honest. It was all just so weird … Anyway, I must have passed out … maybe even died for a few minutes? I don't … I really don't know. I felt like I was suffocating in that trunk. Perhaps I did. Anyway … When I woke up I was- You know, what? It doesn't matter. The important thing is that I made contact with Dad.«

Years ago, his siblings would not have believed anything he said but now that they were paying so much attention to him he felt almost a little self-conscious. Sometimes he didn't even know how to function like his old self anymore, the old, funny flamboyant Klaus who was always sarcastic and witty. He felt washed out. Washed out like an old pair of blue jeans. Yes, that was exactly it.

»What did he say?« Vanya smiled encouragingly before biting off another piece of her slice of pizza. Vanya was sitting on the ground with her back leaned against the sofa that was occupied by Diego and Klaus. It had been a fight who got the spot on the sofa but they had won it fair and square after Diego had more or less just thrown him on the sofa and thus claiming it for them. After all, who would force an injured man out of a comfortable position? Not even Five was such a monster. Good thing that Diego never missed his mark, otherwise, Klaus would have ended up on the floor.

»Oh … the usual spiel. What a great disappointment I was and all that.« Klaus huffed. »He wanted to tell me something important but then I woke up. Anyway, the gist of it is that he told me the reason why he put me into the asylum was so that we would all be still alive to stop the apocalypse when it would come. He knew that whatever will happen happens soon and needed us all back together as a team so … Well, he killed himself.«

»What?« Luther almost jumped to his feet and probably would have done so if he wouldn't have thrown his pizza off his lap then. Priorities. »No, Klaus, you have to be mistaken.«

»No … No, that's what he said. Your mission to the moon, me being at the asylum and not possibly on the streets dying of an overdose … That was just so that we would all still be here when he needed us to be.«  

»Well, he always said that we would one day save the world.« Diego muttered. »But I always thought he just said that to make us do the dishes.«

»Me too.« Five chimed in suddenly very seriously again. He could see that he was already calculation his next moves in his brain. »But how did he know what would happen?«

»Who knows?« Klaus sighed. »Anyway this time around we will be able to beat that end of all times bullshit.«

»What makes you so sure of that?« Allison asked with raised brows. The news that their father had killed himself had come as a surprise to everyone, though no one seemed saddened by it. The house felt less suffocating without old Reggie being around. They were allowed to laugh and love in these walls now and fill them with new found happiness and companionship. No longer would they be pitted against each other. They could finally become a proper team.

»The power of love and all that crap.« Klaus laughed silently and Diego responded in pinching his leg swiftly. Luther gave only a small grumble but at least his sisters found it in themselves to chuckle at his lame excuse for a joke.

»No, but Klaus is right.« Five, to his surprise, spoke up again as if his calculations had finally come to a conclusion. »When I arrived at the apocalypse first, you were all dead, right? But he wasn't there because Diego never found out he was alive and Vanya wasn’t there because you never found out she had powers and could help against whoever attacked the academy and I wasn’t there either! Now it's all six of us back together.«

»Seven.« Klaus corrected calmly. He knew that his siblings still had a hard time believing him when he said that Ben was there but at least Diego believed him and that was the most important thing anyway.

»Seven.« Five nodded even though he couldn't see Ben lounging on the armrest of the sofa next to Diego. They only shared a small glance with each other at that. Ben shot him a smile, obviously proud of how far Klaus had come since Diego had broken him out of the asylum. Diego, he noticed, had become a bit more careful with him, though. He was still seeking physical contact as much as he could but the kissing had become a little sparse for his liking.

»There is something else we need to talk to you about, Klaus.« He could feel Diego’s fingers tense around his good ankle as Luther spoke up and as he looked at Diego, he could see the angry glare he shot Luther. Before they could start fighting, however, Five took over once more from his brothers. Already he had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

»It's about Dave.« Five had always been someone to get straight to the point. »You told us that he killed himself, right?«

»Yes … He hung himself.« And the memory was still haunting him every day. He hadn't seen him hang from the ceiling of his room and yet he felt like he had. He could hear the creaking of the rope under the weight of Dave’s body.

»He didn't.« Diego's fingers became even tenser around his ankle and as Five opened his mouth to continue talking, Diego breathed out a deep sigh.

»Five stole your file after Allison took care of the asylum staff. I wanted to tell you about that but then this whole mess with Cha-Cha and Hazel happened. Dave did not kill himself, Klaus. He was killed by Ashcroft and Nurse Parker because he was interfering too much with the experiments they were conducting on you. His influence on your psyche  was too positive and hey needed you to be broken.«

To say that he didn't know how to react to this would be the understatement of the century. It was almost as if his siblings had collectively decided to play some cruel prank on him or reach deep into his chest to tear out what little was left of his heart to break it apart. As he stared at Diego in disbelief, his instinct told him to run away from the situation but since he could hardly walk without crutches that was not an option. There was this dark little voice in the back of his skull, wondering if his siblings had just waited for the right opportunity to strike, for the moment he would have been lulled into safety before they would completely break him apart piece by piece.

»Breathe, Klaus.« Ben urged from his spot at the armrest and prompted Klaus’ attention to shift on him instead.

»Did you know?« Klaus turned to his dead brother much to the confusion of his other siblings before they seemed able to catch on.

»Klaus…«

»No, Ben! Did you know?«

The hesitation in Ben’s face told him more than he needed to know. Ben had been there, after all. He had told Klaus so himself. He had been there all the time, watching over his brother as much as he could with his limited options. »I did.«

»Why didn't you tell me?« He didn't even realize how he was clenching his fists or how they had started to glow. His mind was racing, his blood boiling like molten lava. He felt betrayed by Ben, the one brother who had always been there and always told him the truth. He sat up straighter despite the pain flaring through his chest from his broken ribs and all the other injuries that were still holding him back, his eyes and mind focussed only on Ben and his searing fury for the lies he had been living with for such a long time and so he didn't even realize how the rest of his siblings gave a collected gasp before Ben finally gave his answer.

»Because you would have killed yourself if I had told you the truth that Dave was killed because of you and I didn't want to lose you!« Ben’s shout echoed through the living room in a way that seemed a bit strange at first before Klaus realized that his siblings were now all staring at Ben as if they were able to see him. »Because I have seen you try to kill yourself over and over again and I knew you would find a way to succeed if you knew the truth!«

Silence settled heavily over the group for just a few precious seconds before Luther was the first one to interrupt it again. »Ben?« He gasped quietly, the focus of his siblings suddenly shifted from Klaus and the horrors he had survived to their dead brother sitting on the armrest by Diego’s side.

»Can you see me?« Ben directed at Luther before turning to Klaus. »Can they see me?«

It was Diego who reached over since Ben was almost a bit too close for comfort anyway to carefully touch his shoulder only to realize that his hand hit something solid and for Diego to flinch back again right away like a cat touching an especially ugly spider.

It was a well-known fact that Diego was terribly afraid of spiders.

It was easy to tell just by looking at Ben’s face that his brother wanted to use the moment to hug all his siblings now that he could. At least it was easy to tell for Klaus who had always been with Ben for such a long time. Ben’s gaze, however, returned to Klaus again.

»I’m sorry that I didn't tell you.« He muttered. »I knew it would break your heart and I couldn't do it. And you … you should rest now. You will need all your strengths when we are going to destroy that place.«

※※※※※※※

Maybe destroying the sanatorium was a bit much even though Benny was quite fond of the idea for the weeks to come. The plan was simple enough. They would sneak into the building in the middle of the night with the help of Five, find Ashcroft and Parker and torment them with the ghosts of all the patients that had died under their care.

His siblings spent four weeks training with him, helping him to learn how to focus his new found powers. Four weeks trying to figure out what to do with Ashcroft and Parker while the scheduled date for the apocalypse came and went without incident.

»I don't think I can go back there.« Klaus confessed at one point. That was why they didn't find themselves in front of the asylum that night. Finding out where Ashcroft was living had been easy enough for Five, of course. He just had to teleport into the archive of the sanatorium and get the address from Ashcroft’s personnel file.

He couldn't deny that he felt uneasy as Diego parked his car on the other side of the road. Maybe he was biting off more than he could chew so shortly after he had almost died at the hands of two time-traveling assassins. His injuries were not fully healed yet and he still got trouble walking at all. His recovery process was agonizingly slow as it seemed to Klaus but he knew that he had to go through with this now or he would never do it. The thought that Ashcroft had ordered Dave’s death was the thing that truly fueled his desire to take revenge on him.

»We can always turn back.« Diego smiled as he reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. »If you don't want to do this, we don't have to go through with it.«

»No.« Klaus sighed and rolled his shoulders as if this would help at all. »I want to do this. I’m just a bit nervous, I guess.« It probably spoke volumes about the trust he held in Diego that he was ready to admit how he truly felt about the situation while he would put up a smile and throw a joke at their siblings if they would be here now. He had always been bad at admitting to his feelings and his time at the asylum had not helped this even in the slightest.  

»I am right out here waiting for your return.« He was thankful that Diego was not insisting on accompanying him inside. The rest of their siblings had wanted to come with him and Diego and it had been a hard-won victory to have them stay behind.

They didn't trust that he wouldn't crumble in the eyes of his abuser. Diego, on the other hand, did have trust. He opened the door of the passenger's side, but before he left his brother to wait in the car, he turned to look at Diego one last time and brushed his fingers carefully over the side of his jaw, feeling the slight stubbles on his skin. A comforting little feeling. There was something lingering in the back of his throat that he wanted to say but he couldn't quite form the words yet and Diego understood as he took the hand on his jaw and pressed a small kiss to Klaus’ fingertips.

»Go now.«

And he did. Before he could falter, at last, he got out of the car and slowly strode over to the house on the other side of the street with only Ben trailing after him. He needed Ben in there with him. He couldn't have Diego’s worried eyes on him but he knew that he couldn't do this without Benny.

He would have expected the house to be a bit more secured. He had expected some giant mansion or something, bodyguards standing around. Instead, it was just a normal house at the edge of town not too far removed from the asylum, unassuming and normal. The house was definitely old and large but came not even close to the academy in this regard. Not that any of this would be important now.

For some strange reason, as he walked up the steps to the front porch of the house, he remembered how Mom once came into his room and put out a fire he had made on his desk. Odd how sometimes such things could creep up out of nowhere. He remembered how she walked in, put out the fire and just walked out again as if it had been nothing. It seemed a lifetime ago. Sometimes he missed those innocent childhood days. He couldn't help but wonder how his life might have turned out if he had never been sent to the asylum.

Would he have hit if off with Diego? Would they still be together now or would their relationship have ended in disaster because they would have been too young and foolish for something of that gravity? Would he have been able to get away from the drugs or would he be a junkie hunting down the next hit on the streets?

There was just the smallest part of him that was grateful that his father had sent him to the asylum because deep down he already knew the answers to those questions. Back then he had been completely out of control and he would have hurt Diego - badly. No matter in which direction their relationship would have gone, it would have ended badly for them both.

Diego had been too young and too much of a coward to run away with him and he had been too wild and untamed and selfish to consider his emotions first. They would have clawed each other's hearts out and Klaus would have left the house to throw himself at every dealer who would have been willing to give him something for the price of his dignity and youth.  

If he had thought that it would be easier for him to walk up to that door and face Ashcroft here at his own house instead of the asylum, he had been terribly mistaken. It wasn't easier in any way at all. He was glad, though, that he did not need to walk the corridors of the asylum ever again. Of course, there was a part of him that wanted to rip Nurse Parker apart limb from limb but, in the end, she had just been following orders. That didn't make it okay but the real villain of his story was Ashcroft and there was no way around it.

»Here goes nothing.« Ben muttered beside him with a soft smile on his face as they reached the front door. Klaus nodded sharply and before his mind and fear could catch up with him, he pushed his index finger against the doorbell. No way back now. It was almost midnight now and Ashcroft’s car parked in the driveway.

All the windows were dark and there was no sound coming from inside that indicated that Ashcroft was still up. Surely, he had already retired to his bedroom and would not be happy to be disturbed so late. Perfect. He needed him disgruntled and out of his comfort zone. Perhaps even mildly freaked out by his former patient showing up in the middle of the night on his doorstep.

Of course, Allison had caused Ashcroft to think that he had let Klaus go willingly but that didn't mean that his sudden visit would not be able to freak out the good doctor because Allison had not made him forget what he had done to Klaus throughout all these years. His file still rested on dad’s desk at the academy and Klaus still had not decided what to do with it. Diego had offered to give the file to Eudora and have her then take action against Ashcroft and Parker. He didn't know how wise this would be, though.

It took a few minutes until he could see light being switched on behind the glass panel of the front door and heard footsteps approaching in a pair of slippers with some sort of rubber sole. It was a very distinct sound that Klaus had heard for twelve long years every day because the nurses had been forced to wear those ugly rubber shoes for some strange reason. They were probably comfortable.

He could see the silhouette of a man approaching before the porch light was switched on. Anxiety was running wild through his body and his heart was fluttering in his ribcage like a songbird trying to break free.

As the door was opened, it was too late to run away and the same thought seemed to go through Dr. Ashcroft’s mind as well as the initial surprise and shock seemed to subside. »Mr. Hargreeves?« Ashcroft asked with surprise written all over his grey face.

His throat felt as if it was lined with sandpaper and he had a hard time not to look over his shoulder to where Diego was waiting in the car, the headlights switched off so that he all but vanished into the night.

»I know it's late.« He began his most Oscar-worthy performance. He had practiced this with Allison. Of course, she could have easily rumored the good doctor to let Klaus inside but this was something he needed to do on his own. »But I … I have a hard time adjusting to the outside world and I thought you might be able to help me with some questions I have. I wouldn't have come if it wouldn't be important, Sir.«

Ashcroft looked over his shoulder and around the street as if he was expecting to see a whole mob with torches and pitchforks as if he had already expected Klaus to come to visit him at some point. He seemed uneasy and rightfully so but seemed to brush off his concerns as Klaus tried his best puppy eyes on him.

»Fair enough.« He sighed and stepped aside after a second of further hesitation. »I think I can spare a few moments but I have to ask you to make it quick. My days start early usually and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.«

»Of course, Dr. Ashcroft.« Klaus smiled sweetly, giving his best expression of the timid submissive young man that the good doctor had desired to create with Klaus as he followed him inside and ultimately into Ashcroft’s living room after the doctor had switched on the lights inside the house.

The room was just as he would have expected it to look like and almost seemed a mirror image of the office of the doctor in the asylum. Dark woods and heavy furniture and a crap ton of fancy paintings all over the room. Not to mention the excessive amount of books and bookshelves. A television stood in the corner of the room but seemed to be used very sparingly. A thick layer of dust had settled on top of the device. That would come in handy soon, he guessed. Already he could see Ben walking over to the old rabbit ear TV set with a small grin on his face. Benny started to enjoy this whole Poltergeist-thing and would often spook their siblings around the house.  

»To be honest, I kind of expected that you would struggle out there. I am, of course, happy to see that you are reunited with your family but after twelve years of strict routine and rules, it was to be expected that you would have a harder time taking care of yourself. I am curious, though. How have you been since you left us?«

»Oh fine, just fine.« Klaus smirked trying to sound as nonchalant as possible even as he ignored Ashcroft’s pointed look at his injured face and fucked up leg. »I mean my father died and we had a few run-ins with not so nice people at the academy but I managed to score a boyfriend, so that's a plus.«

»Is that so?« Ashcroft asked with a surprised smile, his brows wandering up on his forehead like two especially ugly hairy slugs.

»Yeah.« Klaus grinned impishly. »I just hope he’s not going to be killed like my last boyfriend, though.«

Ashcroft seemed taken aback by this as he sat down on the armchair opposite of the sofa Klaus was sitting on. »Klaus … We talked about it. You know that Mr. Thompson has killed himself.«

»Yeah … that's what everybody has been telling me. Funny though … that you yourself say something different in my file, huh?«

»I'm afraid I can't follow, Klaus.« Ashcroft smiled but he seemed much more nervous than he would have expected. »You seem a little confused. Maybe you were released a little too early from our care, Klaus. Perhaps we should discuss this in a more appropriate setting at the asylum soon. Tomorrow? Of course, I will not have you admitted again, except if that's what you decide is best for your recovery. I understand that getting accustomed to the real world outside of the asylum after such a long time can be hard and confusing and I think that we should have tried a different approach instead of just sending you back to your siblings.«

»I think the police might be interested in what really happened to Dave, though. Maybe we could talk about that. Or would you rather talk about the torture you put me through?«

»Torture?« Ashcroft smiled but his left eye was twitching. After all, the good doctor knew who Klaus was and who his siblings were. He had to be aware that he was talking to someone who could potentially do him great harm without even lifting a finger. That was, after all, why he had dulled him with drugs for twelve years. »That was … therapy, Klaus. Therapy.«

He glanced shortly at Ben, so briefly that he hoped Ashcroft didn't notice and, with a smirk, Ben started messing around with the TV, switching it on to static and making the poor doctor flinch and turn around in surprise. Klaus used the moment of inattention to get up from his seat and crossed the distance between him and Ashcroft until he could brace himself on the armrests of the chair. It was hard to stand like this and his leg was groaning in agony but Klaus had always been good to swallow pain down. The manic look that pain always gave him worked in his favor, though, as Ashcroft, startled by the sudden closeness, let out a small gasp.

»This _therapy_ , Doc … Tell me about it. I’m sure the police is just as interested in it as I am.« By now it took him almost no effort anymore to give Ben enough energy to fuck around with the real world. They had practiced this so much those last few weeks that he didn't even need to focus on Ben anymore as his brother swiftly zapped through the channels, making the doctor only more anxious by the oddity of it all. »Tell me, is electroshock therapy the recommended form of therapy for my illness? Or locking the patient in question up in pure darkness in an environment that is designed to freak them out? How about ordering a nurse to almost drown said patient on a regular basis? Of course, we both know that you didn't do all these things because of my _illness_ , right? We both know that I am not ill.«

»Klaus-«

»Dave says hi, by the way.« The next thing took a lot more out of him than having Ben fuck around with the electronics inside the room. It wasn't that hard to tap into the energy of all the dead people that always seemed to trail after him and there was more than enough energy in this house, to begin with. Drawing out the lost souls that were haunting Ashcroft without him knowing about it, seemed easy -  getting them to become corporal took a lot more out of him, however.

The last time he had made so many ghosts visible at once, he had been in mortal danger but the ghosts inside the living room seemed just as eager to help Klaus and get their revenge on their old doctor.

Ashcroft let out a small shriek and pushed Klaus back to jump off the armchair as his living room was suddenly very crowded by a mass of blue-ish spirits roaming around the room. He seemed terrified as the ghosts were moving in on him. He hadn't made them corporal yet and he didn't want the ghosts to rip Ashcroft apart either. Those were the souls of lunatics and they would at least try to kill him if he would let them lose.

»What are you doing?« The doctor shrieked in terror, dropping all pretenses of not knowing about his powers.

»Nothing.« Klaus grinned. »I’m doing nothing, Doc. How could I? I’m just ill, after all. Why? What's wrong? You look as if you've seen a ghost.«

Ashcroft tried to run out of the living room but as he turned towards the door his path was blocked by another wall of ghosts, lead by a very familiar face stepping closer and closer until Ashcroft was cornered.

»You killed me.« Dave growled with his best impression of a vengeful spirit that the dead sunnyboy could possibly muster, the rope still around his neck. A nice little detail, Klaus thought. »You killed all of us. And now we’ve come to collect your debt.«

»Klaus!« Ashcroft shrieked in terror. »Klaus you need to do something!«

»What?« Klaus replied with mock concern in his voice. »Are you unwell? Maybe we should call an ambulance for you, Doctor?«

»Klaus, please!« He screamed as the ghosts pushed him further and further into a corner of the room, with Dave leading them all. »I’m sorry! Please, Klaus, you need to make them go away! Your father was right! You have so much potential! Look at what you are capable of, Klaus! Now ask them to leave and we can work together on perfecting your powers!«

»I’m afraid I don't know what you mean, Doc. I don't have any powers.« As he watched the doctor almost being swallowed by the thick blue mass of the ghosts, he felt a sick sense of satisfaction in Ashcroft's mind-numbing terror. Maybe it was cruel. Maybe it was even evil and yet as Klaus left the house and allowed Ashcroft to enjoy his own personal nightmare for a little while longer, he didn't feel bad or guilty in any way. This was what he deserved, no more no less.

»You did great.« Ben smirked as he joined Klaus on the front porch. He took a moment as he just listened to Ashcroft panicked screams and the wailing of the dead. The lights in the entire house were flickering and he gave them enough energy to throw a few things around and mess up the place for good. A part of him wanted to drive the man insane. Wouldn't he deserve to rot in his own mental asylum after a nervous breakdown?

»Thank you.« Klaus huffed. »I’m here every night ladies and gentle-ghosts.«

Seeing Dave in there had hurt him more than he was ready to admit. He hadn't been able to conjure him again after that day in the motel room and he wasn't sure why Dave had followed his call this time either. He was glad, though, as the screams slowly died out and the noise slowly seized, that Dave fazed through the front door of the house and put one ghostly blue hand on Klaus’ shoulder. He had long gotten used to the feeling of being doused in ice water at the touch of ghosts.

»Dave.« He smiled as he turned to his ex and barely noticed how Ben tactfully vanished - probably to appear back in Diego’s car to wait for him there.

»I wanted to thank you.« Dave smiled and, oh, would there not be a man sitting in a car waiting for him whom he loved, he would have fallen for Dave right here and now all over again. A part of him would always be in love with Dave, he supposed. Just as a part of him had always been in love with Diego too.

He couldn't deny that he felt bad in the face of Dave now, almost as if he was cheating on his dead lover and as always Dave seemed able to read his mind without much effort. »He seems to be a good dude.« Dave nodded towards the car. »He loves you very much.«

»How would you know?«

»Darling, just because I don't always show myself to you, it doesn't mean that I wouldn't sometimes come to visit you to check up on you.« Dave replied with a smile. »You know, only because I’m dead, it doesn't mean that I’m not still with you in some way. I’m always around you like summer rain, if you want it to be cheesy. I mean, you should know this, right? Just look at Ben.«

»Then why didn’t you show yourself?«

»Because I thought that it was better this way. How could you have moved on from the thing we had if I had stayed around to remind you of it all the time?« He was sure that this sounded logical in Dave's mind but Klaus was a stubborn child on his good days. »I am dead, Klaus. There's nothing that could be done about that. But you are still alive and I want you to be happy. You gave me the chance to take my revenge on Ashcroft and for that I am thankful and now it's time for me to move on and time for you to get back into that car and kiss that man, okay?«

Klaus wanted to laugh at Dave’s words but instead, there was only a strangled sob escaping him. »Okay.« He breathed out even though it took a lot out of him to do so. He felt drained - much more from this conversation as compared to what he had done inside that house. »Okay.« He nodded again and, as he quickly wiped his eyes, Dave was gone just like this. A part of him felt lost but then again, Dave had never been a fan of big emotional speeches or heartfelt goodbyes. Perhaps it was better this way.

He took a moment to compose himself before he walked down the front porch and limped back to Diego's car. He was silent and ignored Ben in the backseat as he got back into the passenger's seat and right as Diego opened his mouth to ask him how it went, Klaus simply put his hands in Diego’s neck and dragged him into an all-consuming kiss. He had promised it, after all.

 

**-End of Chapter 19-**


	20. Chapter 20

A blanket of stars hung heavily above a small cabin in the wood at the side of a lake. The wood of the pier was comfortingly hard in his back and the soft blanket between his skin and the wood did not much to cushion anything. He felt at ease out here in the middle of nowhere, just him and Klaus far removed from the noise of the city or the mansion or their siblings. The calm of the lake and the woods around them were alluring. A part of him never wanted to go back.

That was not an option, of course, but he liked to pretend that it was. Just him and Klaus out here in the wilderness as if the rest of the world wouldn't even exist. Then again, the rest of the world had almost ceased to exist a few months ago if they wouldn't have gotten their shit together as a family. Luckily for the rest of the world, they had been able to find out the truth before their sister could explode like a nuclear warhead and destroy everything. It was always the quiet ones. Looking back on the past six months, it was almost a bit too much to believe that all of this had really happened to them.

They had gotten Klaus back from the dead twice, they had saved Vanya from the pain buried deep inside of her, they had saved the world, Five had returned to them and Diego had almost died. Well, he had died, to be completely truthful. He had died and sometimes, in those especially dark and troublesome nights, he would see the motel room in his dreams and Klaus on the ground and all the ghosts surrounding his brother.

At first, after all of this had happened, he had pushed it aside and not spoken about it. That was until Klaus had told him, after one of his especially terrifying nightmares, that he had seen his ghost inside the motel room. Until that moment, Diego had tried to just forget it and blame his hyperactive mind for visions as grim as these, even though Klaus was the morbid one of the two of them. Still, the truth was almost palpable. He had died on that day, even though only for a few shorts minutes, and he had appeared in this motel room, had seen Klaus, had been drawn to him right away.

Not to mention the reveal of everything that Klaus could do. Nowadays he found great joy in levitating around the house just to show off to his siblings and annoy the crap out of them. Smug bastard. Sometimes it was as if the last twelve years hadn't even happened. Everything was as it should be and August was staggering along on its last legs now.

The nights were too hot to spend them inside the small lakeside cabin. Not that one of them would complain about it. Out here it was way more beautiful anyway.

A smirk crossed his face as he heard the splashing of the water as Klaus climbed back onto the small wooden pier. Out here no one cared that they did not possess swimsuits and Diego enjoyed the view too much to say anything as Klaus walked back to him to flop down on the blanket naked like on the day he was born. Not that Klaus would have ever cared about being naked in front of other people. He couldn't care less even if there would be some stranger around.

»The water is perfect.« Klaus grinned taking a deep breath before putting a cold wet hand on Diego’s stomach to make him flinch.

»Perfectly cold.« Diego shuddered as Klaus put his head on his shoulder. »Just like you.«

»Then perhaps you should warm me.« Oh, that famous eyebrow wiggle! He’d be damned. How was he going to resist that? Then again, why would he even try to resist that? They were out here all alone with no one to judge them, no prying eyes, no one to interrupt them. Just the two of them under a starry sky, the moon their only witness as Diego swiftly rolled over his lover, boxing his head in with his forearms as he brought his left knee between Klaus’ long legs.

»Is that really what you want?« He grinned down on him. As Klaus brushed his fingers over the scar on Diego’s chest, it took him a little by surprise. Not that it would be the first time that Klaus would reach out to him in this way. Ever since all this drama had ended, Klaus had spent hours restlessly massaging the scar tissue on Diego’s chest or pressing his ear to his heart to make sure that Diego was still there, still alive and breathing and not yet a ghost. Not that he would be able to tell the difference sometimes.

He allowed the featherlight touch of Klaus’ fingertips against his skin only to press a featherlight kiss of his own on Klaus’ lips. There was no rush behind their actions this time around, no urgency like the first time they had slept with each other. They had all the time in the world and they were both all too eager to use it.

Diego took his sweet time to drag the palms of his hands down Klaus’ torso. He took his time to explore a mouth he knew almost as well as his own. It was easy by now to coax soft noises of enjoyment out of Klaus’ throat and yet it never got boring for Diego either. Klaus’ body was like a canvas he wanted to paint upon, reminding him of the easel and the half-finished painting on the porch of the cabin.

He would leave the paint brushes and paints to Klaus and rather use his fingers and his tongue to paint intricate patterns on Klaus’ perfect skin. Parting from Klaus’ mouth was the hardest task Diego ever had the bad fortune to perform and yet he somehow succeeded and started his descent before Klaus could stop him. It was rare that Klaus allowed him to shower him with kisses and lingering touches. Much rather would he want to do that just to push Diego off-balance as much as he could with his clever tongue and skilled fingers and Diego was too selfish to deny him his fun most of the time.

The tiniest of sighs escaped Klaus as Diego peppered his neck with kisses, working down a warpath to his collarbone.

»Funny« Klaus breathed out deeply, his voice was already tight and heavy with lust just like his hazy green eyes as Diego made the mistake of looking up at him again. He was gorgeous. He had always been gorgeous but now with a few more pounds on him and his skin tone returned to what he knew from their youth, he was irresistible to Diego. »how we always end up in compromising positions like that when unattended for like five minutes.«

Diego breathed a chuckle against Klaus’ still wet skin, enjoying how it made him shiver and the tiny hairs all over his body stand up. »You know that it's your fault.« He groaned against his shoulder as he pressed another kiss to his flesh there. Once he had dreamed of kissing his fingers and hands and arms and shoulders and he had delivered on that dream a million times since. There was not an inch of Klaus he wouldn't have tasted already and yet every time he kissed his skin he found something new to tease him with. Like the way Klaus would shiver and tremble under his fingertips when Diego would carefully drag the tips of his fingers down his sides or how his legs would fall open oh so very willingly when Diego would only do as much as brush his thumb against the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. »If you would put on some clothes once in a while, I would perhaps be able to resist you for longer than a few minutes.«

»What a shame that would be.« Klaus breathed out in another little sigh. Already Diego could feel his cock harden between them. His own was already painfully erect ever since Klaus had first emerged back out of the water and his boxers did little to cover that fact. Not that there would be any need for shame in front of Klaus. They had no secrets that they withheld from the other, nothing to be ashamed of. »Since I love being in a compromising position with you.«

»I know you do.« He smiled and allowed Klaus’ fingers to curl into his short black hair to pull him back up to meet his hungry mouth once more. Their kiss was lazy and sloppy, slow and deep and exactly the way Diego loved it the most. There was no rush behind his actions as he rocked his hips against Klaus’ and drew a low groan from the depths of his throat with the motion.

Most of their trysts were rushed and hard and quick not so much because of their other siblings that were always galavanting through the house and could possibly be stumbling upon them but just because that was the way they were. Both of them were terribly hot-headed. Diego had always had a temper and Klaus was a hurricane on calm days already. Setting up an actual bedroom in the attic under the glass roof had done wonders not only for their sex life as a couple but for the mental well-being of their siblings as well who now would not need to hear them fuck almost every night. Klaus had always been vocal, after all, and there was no surprise that he was vocal in bed as well.

Tonight, out here in the middle of nowhere, however, Diego meant to take his time.

Leaning down, he kissed his way down the path of the sensitive skin of Klaus' throat, grazing the perfect curve of his collarbone with his teeth. »You are awful.« Diego hummed.

He loved the low growl Klaus produced and how his back was arching ever so slightly off the pier beneath him as Diego's mouth continued down-down-down his body, his tongue, and lips, and teeth devouring every valley and every rising of the taut muscles of his abdomen and his perfect chest. His lips grazed over scars that had no right to be there as he tended to every little one of them, searching for new bruises on Klaus' lanky body and found none, only shadows of the past nightmare.

It seemed a lifetime ago that Klaus had been kidnapped by these lunatics and barely escaped with his life while Diego had not been able to do anything at all to help him. Whenever he caught himself thinking about what could have happened to Klaus, he felt a pit in his stomach open up to swallow him whole.

Diego’s mouth went lower and lower, exploring an already well-traveled path down Klaus’ flat stomach. He could feel the vibrations of Klaus holding his breath in anticipation, impatient to get Diego’s wicked tongue to move where he really wanted it. The jerk of surprise and the sweet little curse that escaped his lips came anyway as Diego delivered a teasing nip of his teeth to Klaus’ oh so sensitive inner thigh.

Having Klaus Hargreeves, the Seancé, who was always so cocky and self-assured at his mercy like this tasted as sweet as honey. His right hand already forcefully gripped Klaus' right thigh to lift the beautifully shaped leg above his own naked shoulder and when he moved closer to the body so openly welcoming him he could feel how Klaus' heel dug into his shoulder blade to draw him closer-closer-closer to lure him into pleasure, instead Diego bit down into the tender flesh of his inner thigh once more.

»Diego-« He tried to protest, but the deep moan escaping his full lips stopped him instantly, engulfed in the feeling of the open-mouthed, sloppy kisses, which Diego used to cover the skin of the man beneath him. »Please-« Klaus tried once more only to gasp loudly, his head falling back into the mattress as his lover's mouth finally engulfed his aching arousal, silken heat, and licentious pleasure.

He could feel Klaus fight to hold still, to control his revolting body, but he could also feel how his efforts became an increasingly difficult struggle against his own inner demons as Diego slyly applied his tongue along the ridge of his cock, following it with the slightest, the gentlest, the most careful scraping of teeth over silk.

It became quite obvious that Klaus couldn’t resist bucking into his mouth, one hand – his left hand – reaching down to tangle his long fingers in Diego's already messy dark hair and pull it roughly, causing Diego to growl deep in his throat, but neither loosened Klaus his grip, nor did he let him go. However, when Diego glanced up a little he devoured the sight of Klaus biting his bottom lip only to contain his moans as he finally gave up and decided to let the sensations consume him.

The only thing that mattered was the feeling of heat shooting right down into his groin as he could almost sense the pressure building rapidly inside Klaus, winding tighter and tighter and tighter, his fingers clutching Diego's hair harder in a silent warning of what was soon to come. Diego understood and Klaus did not need to spell it out for him, but he continued the wicked machinations of his mouth anyway until he heard that lovely breathless cry as Klaus finally came, his spine suddenly curving upwards in his release.

Diego sat up, licking his lips absently to not waste a single drop of what Klaus had offered him after he swallowed thickly. He was still painfully aroused himself as he crawled back up to kiss the man lying exhausted underneath him. The kiss itself was meant only as a distraction but Klaus only groaned into it and suddenly, almost violently, pushed him back sharply.

Despite his smaller frame, his lankier and thinner built, Diego knew that Klaus was strong in his own right and just as skilled in various fighting techniques as either one of them. And yet, he sometimes was still surprised over the strength the Seancé possessed and so scarcely used. He described himself as a lover more than a fighter and nothing could be truer. Yet, Diego was aware that he should never underestimate his boyfriend either. And never became this more clear than in moments like this as Diego had no chance to get up fast enough after he landed on his back until Klaus was on top of him.

»Let me take care of you.« Klaus commanded again with this playful little grin of his plastered on his face, even though he still was a bit breathless from his recent orgasm – not that it would be the first today. In a matter of seconds, Klaus had hooked his fingers under the waistband of Diego’s boxer shorts and pulled them all the way down, releasing his erect cock with a joyous little bounce in the excitement of what was about to come.

Diego could not help but grin and bite his bottom lip when he crossed his right arm behind his head, feeling the hot groin of the Seancé brushing over his own stone hard cock when Klaus reached out to the side for the oil that was still standing there on the ground from previous activities. His moan was husky with suppressed desire, as he watched Klaus preparing himself - his own slick fingers disappearing intriguingly again and again until he was satisfied.

He didn’t do it because he really needed to prepare himself, after all, they had had sex not even half an hour ago before Klaus had decided to jump into the dark abyss of the lake. He only did it to drive Diego mad, to make him moan and writhe in pleasure without even touching him. Oh, that little bastard knew exactly what he was doing and that Diego was watching how Klaus’ skilled fingers were working him open for Diego’s cock. Klaus had always liked to tease him, even back when they had been teenagers and too stupid and naive to know what they were doing. Yet, Diego was unable to look away, even more so when Klaus finally sank down onto Diego's impatiently waiting cock with a satisfied grunt, his eyes fluttering shut.

Diego rocked his own hips to meet him, his hands settling on Klaus' waist to steady him as he took his cock deeper and deeper inside his tightly strung body. It was quite hard not to use too much pressure with his rough and calloused hands, so he wouldn’t bruise Klaus again, but it was almost impossible to concentrate on this little detail, especially when Klaus then decided he was comfortable enough and started to ride him, panting as he enjoyed the sweet pain and the little burn of Diego's thick cock plunging into him, ripping him open and filling him to his own desire. Klaus had always been good in just taking what he wanted.

Their hips rolled together, synchronized in mutual pleasure. Klaus' short nails dug into the flesh of Diego's flat stomach, into his muscles while he steadied himself to fasten his pace, moaning as if the last time he had had sex laid back ages. It wasn’t long until Diego couldn’t stand it anymore, the sensation of Klaus' body welcoming his, the sight of Klaus' naked body on top of him, his skin glistening with little drops of sweat – close enough that Diego could easily count each and every little one of them – the sound of those deep immoral moans coming from the depths of Klaus' throat.

He scrambled to sit up and cross his legs underneath Klaus with a little adjusting of their bodies here and there, prompting Klaus into a lazier pace now as the other man sat comfortably on his lap, his long legs closed around Diego's hips, unbearable close and yet never close enough. He could feel Klaus' hardened cock pressing into his stomach as he grabbed him tighter, closing his arms around him for a tight embrace.

Klaus' hot breath in his ear started to drive him insane before he forcefully grabbed his jaw with one hand to pull his lover into a deep kiss, all tongue and teeth, sloppy and with no finesse at all, while his hand came to a rest on Klaus' shoulder again.

When he finally lost it and came deeply engulfed inside his lover, only for Klaus to follow him suit over the edge of the cliff without even the need of being touched by him at all, Klaus continued to ride him through his orgasm, as he was being filled with Diego's release, some of it lazily dripping down those beautiful thighs.

»I could stay here like this forever.« Klaus later hummed against the skin of Diego’s bare throat as they rested side by side on their little nest of blankets out there on the pier. His skin was warm against Diego’s own as he snuggled into his side and rested his head securely on Diego’s left shoulder. He had possibly never felt as content as he did in that moment, gently dragging his fingers through Klaus’ mop of unruly curls which he had always loved so dearly. He could spend hours upon hours just brushing his fingers through his soft hair and not say anything at all, the only sounds around him Klaus’ steady breathing - a sign that he was alive - and maybe the birds chirping around them, the wind whistling in the trees and the water splashing against the shore.

»Sooner or later the others would find us, though.« Diego replied in a low voice. He didn't even have the energy to raise his voice and why should he? Klaus was right here in his arms where he belonged. Of course, it was not always sunshine and rainbows with them and Diego had never been naive enough to think that it would be like this either. He knew Klaus too well to harbor such fantasies. Klaus was like a hurricane, lightning trapped in a bottle.

On his good days, Klaus was the best person to be around, a wellspring of energy and creativity. He was sarcastic and witty, funny and straight forward. He was indeed the heart of the team, the one who always had everyone's back and who would never shy away from making a complete fool out of himself to cheer everyone else up. He was loving and kind and always saw the best in the people around himself.

On his bad days, however, Klaus was dark and gloomy, cynical and morbid and tormented by his darkest of memories, his most horrible traumas. From the moment he had found him again at the asylum, Diego had known that it wouldn't be easy. He had known that Klaus was a man tortured by a whole sleuth of demons, weighed down by trauma inflicted upon him by their father and the people of the asylum. On his bad days, not even Diego was often able to get through to him.

Well, he had never expected it to be easy and though being with Klaus was sometimes trying and exhausting, the good days made up for it all the more. Six months ago, Klaus had still been in the clutches of Ashcroft, helpless and unable to tell the reality from his hallucinations. He had come a long way since then and still he was shaken awake by nightmares more often than not. Still, sometimes he had moments when he wouldn't know what was real or not and sometimes not even Diego could calm him down enough to get a grasp.

They were getting better, though. They both were.

 

**-End of Chapter 20-**


End file.
